Monkeys take in baby robot as their own and grieve when it appears to die

Here's something to plug that Planet Earth II sized hole in your life.

As we wait for the BBC series to drop in Australia, the Brits have given us the magic of Spy in the Wild.

The premise of the show is infiltrating animal groups with robotic replicas that have camera lenses for eyes.

And before airing in the UK tomorrow the BBC has released this titbit showing monkeys grieve, just like humans.

A group of langur monkeys took in their robotic imposter as one of their own, forming an emotional attachment to the pile of wires almost as strong as that of a human for their smartphone.

And just like when we drop our phones with enough force for the screen to crack and the battery to die, the monkeys grieved for the loss of their weird little friend when it fell off its perch.

They displayed behaviour just like ours when confronted with the mortality of our wifi-enabled devices, such as desperately inspecting the "baby's" lifeless body for any signs of hope.

Looking forlorn, the group gathers around the lifeless machine and embrace each other tenderly to console one another over the sad sequence of events.

The touching footage makes for some emotional viewing, hinting we're going to be in for a treat when the full series airs.

It's beautiful, sad and telling of our primal desire instinct to deal with loss (and apparently, ability to form meaningful attachments to electronic devices).