Visitors to the zoo have been having their shades pinches by the cheeky monkeys

Mischievous monkeys at London Zoo have been stealing visitors’ sunglasses.

The Bolivian squirrel monkeys’ fascination with shades has been growing since the weather turned nice last week.

Their thieving has become such a problem that keepers are training the cheeky primates not to be so light-fingered.

The 18 animals, who live in the zoo’s Meet the Monkeys walk-through exhibit, are being given sunglasses with bitter apple smeared on them as a deterrent.

Tracey Lee, a team leader at the zoo, said: “We’ve found Ray-Bans and Aviator sunglasses already and with more good weather approaching we think it’s a good idea to train the monkeys not to pinch people’s sunglasses.

“They don’t like the taste of anything sour so we are going to put bitter apple on the sunglasses - we hope this will be enough to keep visitors’ eyewear safe this summer.”

This is not the first time the monkeys have been naughty.

Four years ago keepers had to wean them off a habit for stealing people’s phones.