Your morning adorable: Japanese macaque monkey makes a snowball

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It’s no accident that Japanese macaques, like this resident of the Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart, Germany, are also called ‘snow monkeys.’ The species is well-known for its intelligence and sense of fun, which sometimes includes rolling the occasional snowball just for the heck of it. (We don’t know this guy’s name, so we’re just going to go ahead and call him Snowball. Or maybe Snowball II.) Japanese macaques are also one of the few animal species known to wash their food before eating it.

Fun fact: Although Japanese macaques are native to, you guessed it, Japan, a group of the little monkeys was imported to Texas in the early 1970s in an attempt to prevent them from encroaching on the Japanese city of Kyoto. The group of refugee monkeys has a storied history and remains in Texas to this day.

More photos of this snowball-making monkey after the jump!

-- Lindsay Barnett

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