Pick up the phone! Hilarious moment spider monkeys steal iPhone and keepers struggle to retrieve it
- Spider monkey is seen taking a smartphone and playing with it at Nashville Zoo
- Cheeky animal perches on branch and tries to pull the pop-socket off the phone
- It then drops device and another monkey hilariously creeps in to grab new toy
- Zookeepers manage to get the mobile back after using a stick and digging a hole
A zoo visitor got more entertainment than they bargained for when a spider monkey took their phone inside its enclosure.
In a hilarious clip filmed at Nashville Zoo in Tennessee on Friday the cheeky creature is seen running along tree branches with the smartphone.
After making it back to a perch the monkey bites on the device and shows it to a pal, before dropping it from the tree for another of the troop to play with.
A spider monkey hilariously stole a visitors phone (left) and took it onto a tree in the enclosure (right) at Nashville Zoo in Tennessee
In the clip the monkey is seen sitting on a branch and trying to pull the pop-socket off the back as another animal comes to join it.
While trying to work out what the unusual toy is, the monkey bites the corner of the phone before losing its grip and dropping it from the tree.
Another inquisitive animal then sneaks towards the phone, making sure to look behind to see if any of the other monkeys have followed, to pick it up.
This monkey gives the phone a sniff and creeps behind another tree. The video then cuts to a zookeeper sitting on the other side of a fence.
The cheeky monkeys sniff and bite the phone (left) and try to pull off the pop-socket before dropping it. One of the animals (right) also carries the mobile along another lower branch
The keeper uses a long stick to try and get the phone towards them but ends up having to call in reinforcements to retrieve the mobile.
Another person then helps to dig a hole and the pair manage to get the phone out of the enclosure.
Throughout the video visitors and children can be heard giggling and talking about the entertainment, shouting: ‘They have the phone, oh my god! He wants to eat it!’
When the smartphone is back in human hands the spectators cheer and clap for the zookeepers.
A zookeeper (left) tries to talk to the monkey as it plays with the phone before using a stick to move the device closer to the fence. After she manages to get hold of it (right) she celebrates by waving her hands in the air
The person who filmed the video explained: ‘I had never been to a zoo before. While observing the monkeys, I saw that several of them were working together to pull a phone through the fence.
‘Suddenly, one of the monkeys took the phone and ran up the tree. The monkey was determined to take the pop-socket off of the phone.
‘Then the monkey dropped the phone and it fell several feet onto the ground. The zookeepers were trying to retrieve the phone by pushing it to the edge with a long stick.
‘The best part of the video is when a monkey snuck up and picked the phone up from the ground.’