Wild Monkey Hilariously Pets Unsuspecting Sleeping Dog

Remember the old saying, “let sleeping dogs lie”? This curious monkey doesn’t. He is really intrigued by the dog, but very unsure about how close he can get. Will the dog attack? There’s only one way to find out!

Here is yet another case of interspecies relationship behavior. The good thing about observing primates (monkeys and apes) interacting with dogs is that we implicitly empathize with both. That is, we can put ourselves in their place. The monkey, because they so closely resemble us in structure, anatomy, and physiology, and even psychology; and the dog because we have lived with them for so many thousands of years that we understand them, and they, us.

The dog barely flinches as the monkey dares to move in ever closer, even jumping down from the wall and testing the dog with his hand several times. Oh, the dog knows he’s there. Consider how well we know our pets. We can just tell that this dog is friendly. Dogs and people have such a long history that they have come to depend on us for food, but also for the relative luxury of living in our spaces. If a dog wants to sleep on a man-made wall, well, it’s rare that any human would stop him from lounging pretty much wherever he wants to. And the dogs pretty much knows this, and trusts us.

The monkey, on the other hand, doesn’t share that history of mutual dependency. For that matter, the monkey isn’t even a classical domesticated animal. For as much as monkeys can be seen living close to humans, they are still technically wild animals. Still, the monkey is intelligent enough to observe and learn by watching how people do it. This monkey is going to push the envelope a bit, and perhaps move the needle of evolution just a little closer to becoming more human-like.

As the world of amateur videos has exploded, it has also exposed a truth hidden down through the ages, that many animals, not just primates, but even birds and elephants can demonstrate affection for one another. Take, for instance, the touching relationship between Mzee the 130 year old tortoise and Owen the orphaned hippo baby at an animal sanctuary in Kenya. These two besties are one of the most diverse friendships, ever. One of them isn’t even a mammal!

As ordinary people capture extraordinary moments, expect to see more evidence that we denizens of Planet Earth are more similar than different.