Baby monkey rescued from street vendor is so scared it won’t let go of savior's arm (video)

A baby monkey refuses to let go of the hand of its caretaker after being rescued from an illegal vendor in China from the city of Jinghong on July 21.

China’s Xinhua News posted the video of the amazing rescue on Twitter, which revealed the baby Assamese macaque holding on to its caretaker’s arm tightly after being taken to the forest police in the southern province of Yunnan in China.

The little monkey’s species has been listed as ‘Near Threatened’ by the IUCN since 2008, and it has been put under state protection in China.

The local wildlife care center, Xishuangbanna Wildlife Shelter, where it was brought to after the rescue has stated that the little monkey would be released into the wild once it is big enough to survive on its own.

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Meanwhile, Daily Mail further cited Xinhua News Agency’s official website and reported that people have been often caught buying and selling wild animals for meat, skin, and organs despite the trade being prohibited by the Chinese law.

Monkeys are mostly targeted in China because its brain, particularly, is considered a delicacy by some of the people in certain parts of southern China.

Dubbed as one of the world’s cruelest dining experiences, some of the Chinese diners like to crack open the monkey’s head while the animal is still alive to feed on its brain. Tradition says that such practices make the one eating the brain smarter.

Many young people in China also consider keeping a baby monkey a rising trend because of several live-streaming videos going on air which depict baby monkeys as a pet, the online source reported.

One of such videos came out earlier in June this year, in which case, one live-stream host, Pan, was investigated by China’s Yangzhou city. The host allegedly showed off her ‘cute’ baby macaque in the video.

Through the host, Police also arrested a 35-member gang involved in the trading of state protected Barbary macaques across China. Authorities also rescued 16 macaques in the same operation, as reported by CCTV.