This is the adorable moment a squirrel enjoyed swirling around on a homemade merry-go-round halfway up a tree.

While Jim Hamilton was watching on his porch at home in Chetek, Wisconsin, USA, on April 30, one of the local critters decided to jump on his creation.

Hilarious footage shows the squirrel clamber up on to the spokes and almost to the top of the wheel before the contraption spins all the way down to the bottom.

The determined animal even held on to the bottom rim of the wheel like a Mission Impossible stuntman before climbing off and down the tree.

Jim said: “I've had these wheels up for several years and for me, it's just cheap entertainment as I can sit in my lazy boy and look right out the front window and watch them.

“I generally hate cold weather, so things like this keep me entertained at home during the winter months.

“Some squirrels get on it, spin once and want nothing more to do with it, while others will mess around with it until they figure it out.

“The wheel is my creation. It has gone through several incarnations of build before being what it is now.

“First, I had a wheel with only four spokes holding the wheel to the hub. On the wheel, I had four metal rods extending from the wheel about 12inches and the cobs hung off them with jack chain.

“The squirrels figured that out pretty fast, so I made a new wheel and left all the spokes on it to make it harder for them to get around the wheel.

“They eventually figured that out too, so I next made it as it is now. It's just some flat iron tabs bolted to the wheel to which the cobs are attached with four inch self-tapping screws.”