VIDEO: Can Someone Please Tell These Grieving Monkeys Their Little Friend Isn't Dead?

Mother Nature is known to be cruel, but humans are most certainly crueler — perhaps even when we don’t mean to be. And often in the name of science.

Take this video above, for instance. It’s a short clip from BBC’s Spy in the Wild: Episode 1, a new documentary series showing what happens when animatronic spy creatures are installed within various wild animal communities. These robot spies are touted for their ability to help researchers investigate the animals’ emotional responses.

The results are both stunning and devastating for a colony of langur monkeys. When one monkey accidentally drops the spy baby, she and the rest of the group are convinced it is dead. They appear to grieve and comfort one another, which is fascinating and quite touching — but absolutely horrifying, too. We can see how sad the monkey who dropped the doll is, and we can only imagine it feels tremendous guilt as well. (Do monkeys feel guilt? Guess we have to keep watching … ) Ultimately, we’re left wishing we could explain to the whole langur crew they’ve been Punk’d.

Where’s Ashton Kutcher when we really need him? Sigh.