Planet Earth II viewers reduced to ‘nervous wrecks’ as baby spider monkey is saved from deadly plunge by its father
Fans of the BBC documentary could barely bring themselves to watch the adorable primate's daring treetop escapades
VIEWERS watched with bated breath as an adorable baby spider monkey almost plunged to its death on Planet Earth II tonight - before it was saved by its 'hero' dad.
The cute jungle primate had ventured higher into the tree tops than it ever had before - leaving fans of the BBC documentary on the edge of their seats.
As he explored, the branches began to get thinner and audibly crack under the strain of the junior monkey's weight.
Viewers could sense the danger and many hearts were in mouths as the spider monkey climbed higher and higher - before the tree could hold him no more and he plummeted towards the ground.
Thankfully it managed to grab onto a sturdier branch using its tail - but due to his small stature it couldn't reach another to haul himself back up.
Thankfully, dad had been watching all along and came to its rescue, using his body as a bridge for the baby monkey to climb onto.
The nail-biting scene culminated in the young spider monkey giving its father a hug - which had many viewers reaching for the tissues.
Several took to Twitter to share their emotional roller coaster.
One tweeted: "Stop doing this to me #planetearth2 My heart was in my mouth when that little Spider Monkey fell!"
Another wrote: "Nervous wreck watching Planet Earth II - that baby spider monkey nearly falling out the tree tho 😭😭 #DavidAttenborough #planetearth2".
Later in the episode, which this week focused on jungles, a leaf-tailed gecko showed off its incredible camouflage skills and male Red Birds of Paradise took part in a dance off to woo a female.
The nature show, which is narrated by Sir David Attenborough, recently came under fire after eagle-eyed fans spotted that avalanche footage was recycled from the original 2006 series.
Last week the rape of a snow leopard had viewers recoiling in horror.