IT wasn’t only just humans who were enjoying the glorious sunshine over the last few days as Longleat Safari Park’s rhesus monkeys were treated to some ice lollies.

The species, found across south east Asia and the Indian subcontinent, were also given the ice-cold treats to encourage them to utilise their natural foraging instincts, as well as cool them down.

Longleat’s Ian Turner said: “Normally we’d hide the food among the trees in their enclosure so they have to go hunting for it but we thought it was time to give them a treat; particularly with the current heatwave.

“The frozen fruit lollies are made from bananas and oranges and we used willow for the lolly sticks as the monkeys also like to eat them as well.”

Rhesus monkeys are extremely intelligent animals that can learn to manipulate simple tools and distinguish colours and shapes, and even have the ability to count according to a study at Columbia University in America.

They are highly sociable and live in family troops of 20 or more led by a dominant male.

They gather food as a group, with one monkey acting as a lookout while others fill their cheek pouches as full as they can.