A playful monkey appeared to gently groom a hiker's hair in Taiwan.

The Formosan rock macaque was sitting on a safety rail along Shou Shan Trail when a tourist stopped for a picture in Kaohsiung on February 9.

The primate, seemingly friendly with the visitor, climbed the hiker's shoulder and began shuffling through his hair.

Footage shows the macaque sweeping the tourist's hair to one side. The mammal attracted others from its troop, including a mother with a baby.

Hiker's girlfriend Yi Ling Wang said: 'We we encountered a group of Formosan rock macaques grooming each other at the summit.

'As we paused to observe, a curious little monkey locked eyes with my boyfriend, then jumped onto his shoulder and began grooming his hair. The unexpected interaction left us both amused.

'After a while, the baby monkey's mother approached, calling it back. However, the youngster clung to my boyfriend's neck, refusing to let go. Eventually, it climbed down—as a crowd of monkeys gathered and ran away.'

The friendly monkey hopped away and joined its family, leaving the couple on the trail.

Formosan rock macaques are the only native monkey species in Taiwan. They are highly social animals that live in troops with complex hierarchies.