Giddy up! The monkey that loves nothing more than to ride a pig

By Daily Mail Reporter


An internet sensation: The piggy-back ride that formed a unique friendship between the lonely twosome

We have all enjoyed the odd piggy-back ride and it seems there's no exception, even if you are a monkey.

This Japanese macaque called Miwa-chan has has become an internet sensation and had more than 11 million hits since he decided to hitch a ride on his porky friend Uribo.

The pairs antics were filmed at the Fukuchiyama Zoo, near Kyoto, Japan, by keeper and vet Akihiro Nihonmatsu.

Holding on tightly: Miwa-Chan goes on a piggyback ride into the wild at Fukuchiyama Zoo

The two are now so popular a book featuring Miwa-chan and Uribo has been written by Akihiro and is read by millions of Japanese children.

Miwa-chan had to be hand-reared by keepers at the zoo after he was rejected by his birth parents.

And bizarrely Akihiro and his team found a surrogate friend for the social monkey in the shape of a baby Japanese wild boar.

The pair hit if off immediately with Miwa-chans favourite position being gripped onto the back of his piggy friend - aping the behaviour in the wild where the youngster would hold on to his mother.

Since his first ride on the back of Uribo both the monkey and the pig have grown up together and have now had their own shared enclosure built for them.

Akihiro, 39, said when the monkey and the pig arrived they were both lonely so putting them together as youngsters was the natural thing to do.

He said: 'Uribo still lets Miwa-chan ride his back to this day as the little monkey has never grown out of it.

'They now have an enclosure they share together and they are very happy at the zoo, I don't think they have an idea how famous they are, but all the publicity helped pay for their upkeep.

'Miwa-chan actually was attacked by a raccoon in the zoo last year and needed 30 stitches so he wasn't able to ride on Uribos back for a while.

'But it was really touching how Uribo missed him and it's amazing to think two animals not related and different species can become such good friends.'


The popular twosome: The pairs special moments were captured at the Fukuchiyama Zoo, near Kyoto, Japan, by keeper and vet Akihiro Nihonmatsu




source:dailymail