Two native animal species in Japan have coexisted for a long time and even share a symbiotic relationship.
An intriguing photo captured by photographer Atsuyuki Ohshima shows a monkey riding a deer on Yakushima Island, Japan.
A moment of the monkey riding the deer. (Photo: Atsuyuki Ohshima).
In his work, Ohshima describes a macaque monkey launching itself onto a sika deer after using a tree as a springboard.
“It rode the deer for about 15 minutes. During that time, the deer continued to move normally,” Ohshima stated. “It seems that the monkey was just riding the deer for fun.”
This photograph is one of the 16 highly rated images in the “Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2023” competition, organized by the Natural History Museum in London.
The jury for this year’s contest sorted through 49,957 entries from aspiring photographers across 95 countries before selecting 100 images for display in London.
The winners of the 59th competition will be announced on October 10.
According to Inverse, these two native animal species in Japan have coexisted for a long time and even share a symbiotic relationship. There, the deer serve as the “cleaners” for the monkeys, willingly eating the leftover fruits discarded by the primates.
The monkeys reciprocate by climbing onto the deer’s back to groom and remove pests from the animal. In some exceptional cases, male monkeys and female deer even attempt to mate, although this does not provide any benefit.
