They are best mates now (Picture: Getty)

A lonely, critically endangered monkey and the world’s most common bird have become friends – and this is not an episode of Sesame Street.

Niv, an Indonesian black macaque, has spent the past week caressing, cleaning and playing with a chicken that wandered into its enclosure at the Ramat Gan Safari Park near Tel Aviv, Israel.

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A few months ago, Niv attempted to adopt a previous chicken, but it spurned her advances, the zoo said.

Mor Porat, a spokesperson for the park, said: ‘It seems that Niv, who is four years old and has reached the age of sexual maturity, has difficulty finding a partner.




‘This probably explains the maternal instinct she expresses to this chicken.’

Zoo officials say the unlikely pair have become inseparable. (Picture: AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

The bird, which doesn’t have a name, could easily escape through the bars but chooses to stay near Niv.

The spokesman continued: ‘These kinds of relationships are rare.

‘Sometimes macaques kill and eat chickens that enter their pens or play with them until they die’ adding the chicken ‘seems very happy to have found a surrogate mother. At night they sleep together.’

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