Monkey chase caught on camera becomes social media hit
Want to become a social media sensation? Then just try and get a photo with a monkey.
A series of photographs showing British teen Karima Nabi being chased by a Barbary macaque have become a Twitter hit.
The photos, showing the comical encounter, have now been retweeted over 41,000 times and liked 70,000 times.
Underlining her new online fame, Karima, from Birmingham, has even inspired a meme.
The incident happened at Trentham Monkey Forest, near Stoke-on-Trent, reported the BBC.
She said that her only aim was “to get a picture with a monkey”.
Karima, 18, certainly did that, and a lot more besides.
She was visiting the park with her sister last weekend when she spotted and approached the macaque.
The monkey though was feeling anything but photo-friendly.
It was visibly irritated by the attention and instead of posing for a picture, it decided to its anger out on poor Karima, chasing her as she ran away.
Karima may not have appreciated it at the time, but they certainly made for better photos than just ordinary ones.
She told the BBC that as the monkey lurched towards her she “ran for about 10 seconds and it finally stopped chasing me”.
“Next thing I know, a worker came up to us and asked if we were alright and told us to be careful and to stay one metre away next time.”
Trentham does warn visitors to not get too close to the animals.
Matt Lovall, Park Director at Trentham Monkey Forest, said the pictures showing the monkey leaning back reveal that macaque felt threatened.
It also curled its lips into an “o” shape, a sign usually used to ward off rivals.
Trentham insisted such incidents are rare.
