A starving wild monkey was seen pulling on a woman’s leg to ask her for food.

The macaque approached the tourist and her friends as they fed buckets of snacks to the animals at a park in Ayutthaya City, Thailand on September 6.

Without letting her leg go, the monkey took several mouthfuls of treats handed by the woman while other animals were fed as well.

The woman’s friend Suttasinee Suksripisal said: ‘My friend has always been afraid of monkeys but when she saw how they can be really sweet, she started to enjoy feeding them now.

‘This monkey was obviously so hungry it just approached us when we arrived with the biscuits. It’s sad that they had to beg for food and starve.’

Data from the Wildlife Conservation Office reported that more than a hundred thousand monkeys had entered the residential areas in around 50 provinces making noise, eating crops, destroying garbage bins, and biting people.

A government agency study showed that tourists feeding monkeys were one of the key factors resulting in overpopulation as most food that they consumed had a high quantity of carbohydrates causing a change in their eating habits and a higher sexual drive.

Officials are now considering creating a ‘monkey colony’ project or moving the animals to an island over the past two years as an alternative to mass sterilisation.