Last week, Igor Venâncio was walking near his home in Brazil when he noticed a group of children crowded around something on the street.
When Venâncio got closer, he realized it was a tiny baby marmoset — a type of monkey native to the region — lying helplessly on the ground.
And then he noticed, watching on a branch overhead, her worried mom.
Suspecting that the baby’s mother was hesitant to retrieve her because of the crowd, Venâncio asked the children to give her space. But still, Mom seemed reluctant to approach. So, Venâncio decided to arrange the reunion himself.
“Acting on instinct, I took the baby to her parent,” Venâncio told The Dodo. “A car or a cat could have passed by, and maybe it wouldn’t have been a happy ending.”
Instead, thanks to Venâncio, it was.
Here’s that moment on video: The family was once again whole — a fact celebrated with their chorus of happy squeaks.
Mother and baby, now reunited after that scary experience, then disappeared into the safety of the treetop.
But not before Venâncio got a look from Mom that he won’t soon forget.
“I felt gratitude in her eyes,” he said. “It made me feel connected to nature.”