Monkey with 'square human face' is latest online celebrity

TIANJIN - A monkey has become the latest Chinese online celebrity thanks to its square face that resembles a human.

Video footage of the black-capped capuchin at the Tianjin Zoo recently went viral on Sina Weibo. The video had more than 8 million views and 5,000 comments as of 9 am on Wednesday.

In one of the videos, the monkey can be seen moving its lips, mumbling like a human. In another, it appears to be surprised, with eyes and mouth wide open.

According to staff members at the zoo, the monkey was acquired in 2000, and is now nearly 18 years old. The average life expectancy of black-capped capuchins is 20 years.

"When you get old, you usually begin to mumble," said Weibo user Tiyage-Messi.

"It is definitely a drama king," read another Weibo comment.

"I doubt it is a real monkey," said commenter Yaocool. "Maybe they are short of monkeys and asked one of the zoo staff to wear the monkey costume and entertain us."

Zhang Shuangmeng, a staff member at the zoo, said they always knew the monkey has a unique face but did not expect it to become a celebrity.

"It is the king of all the monkeys in the zoo, and always gets to eat first," Zhang said.

Zhang said that the monkey enjoys coconuts, strawberries, bananas and cherries.

Another staff member at the zoo told video-sharing site Pear Video that the monkey's face was recognized as a human face by a mobile application.

Zoo visitor Liu Jian found the monkey "very cute".

"I heard that it is the only monkey whose face can be scanned by facial recognition technology," Liu said.

"The monkeys I have seen in the past usually had round faces, but this one is a bit peculiar," said another visitor. "I found out about the monkey on Weibo and I came here out of curiosity."

The monkey's expressions are so funny that people have created emojis featuring its face.

Black-capped capuchins are native to the eastern part of the Andes in South America and can be found in the forests of tropical and subtropical areas.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species designated the species as "near threatened" in 2015.

Xinhua