A 16-year-old cat named Rosinka has adopted a baby monkey after it was abandoned by its mother in a Russian zoo.
The mother of the three-week-old squirrel monkey refused to carry him on her back – which would have been essential for it to survive the first months of its life.
Fearing that Fedor the monkey would die, the director of Tyumen Zoo carried out an experiment and introduced him to her cat Rosinka — who has never had babies of her own.
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The cat surprisingly adopted the monkey and the animals have been living together for about three weeks.
Fedor is always on Rosinka’s back except for when he needs to be fed milk.
Tatyana Antropova, the zoo director, says the monkey will stay with the cat for another month to get stronger and will then be transferred back to the zoo to live with his relatives.