Brit tourist almost loses a finger after monkey mistakes fake nail for peanut
A British tourist got more than she bargained for when she went to feed monkeys while on holiday.
Tasmin Tricker was on a spontaneous six-day holiday in Morocco with a friend last month when she went on a day trip to the Ouzoud Falls.
The 26-year-old was feeding a Barbary macaque when it decided to leap onto her head, evidently not happy to wait for her to feed him in her own time.
The monkey, nicknamed ‘big daddy’ due to his impressive size, grabbed Tasmin’s hand and gobbled down the food before then biting her fingers.
Tasmin, a waitress from Coulsdon, south London, ‘freaked out’ when the monkey jumped on her head – and she had to be coached on how to let the monkey down.
She shared a clip of the mishap on TikTok, which has received more than 2.4 million views – probably because her facial expressions make clear just how shocked and ‘freaked out’ she really was.
Tasmin reckons the macaque mistook her leopard print French tips for a peanut and tried to eat it, explaining: ‘We started feeding the monkeys and one got on me.
‘I felt his gnashers nip me. My nails were leopard print as a French tip. I don’t know if he thought that was a nut.
‘I freaked out. That was the first one I held and he was the big one as well. It was quite a lot.
‘The tour guide was going on about how they are friendly, but not to me.
‘I was looking at how he was just holding my hand with his hand, which was funny.
‘His belly was all against the back of my head and it was just so hot. He did smell a bit funny.
‘I was wearing Gucci sunglasses my mum got me for my birthday. I had to keep pushing them back because the monkey put all his weight on me. It was lucky he didn’t take them.
‘Then the tour guide told me to kneel down. I didn’t really know what I was doing because I was in panic mode. I froze a bit.
‘My reaction was definitely an overreaction because he didn’t bite me hard but I’ve heard stories about monkeys.
‘People commented on the video saying I need to get rabies jabs but he didn’t break my skin. I think I just panicked.’
Tasmin then ended up ‘frozen’ after her hair got caught up in another monkey’s hand – which had to be gently extracted from the monkey’s fist.
She commented: ‘My hair was caught in the monkey’s hand on the other guy’s shoulder so I was stuck there while I was waiting for someone to get it out. It was quite funny.
‘I didn’t know if I should move in case he got annoyed and ripped my hair off my head.
‘I think everyone was trying to remain calm. I was just focusing on the man trying to remove my hair from the monkey.
‘You just never know with animals. You can’t really do those sorts of trips and expect nothing to happen. It’s nature. I’ll definitely do it again.’
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