Video: BBC One’s Spy in the Wild series embeds animatronic spy animals out in nature with their real life animal counterparts to see what life is really like in the wild. The robot creatures can look a little bit creepy with their eyeball cameras, but the animals often embrace them as one of their own. Sometimes the relationship can turn emotional, like when these Langur monkeys grieved for a robotic spy monkey that fell to the ground and “died”.
You can see how the relationship grows between the real Langur monkeys and the robot monkey in the video below. First, they’re curious about the motionless spy. Then, they include it in their herd. Then, they even want to start babysitting the fake baby robot and take care of it. And finally, when it falls off the tree branch, the monkeys all grieve for it like they would if their own babies died. It’s really sad.