A rescuer gave a monkey one last hug before releasing him into the forest.

Footage shows the animal lover To Suvannaphan sharing a tender moment with the one-year-old primate named Baiboon as they embraced before parting ways at the wildlife sanctuary in Vientiane, Laos, on April 29.

To helped take care of Baiboon since it was a baby when they found it separated from its family on January 27 last year.

However, To had to return the macaque to its home in the wild due to regulations but returns to the area to meet up - and surprisingly, the smart Baiboon remembered him and approached him everytime he comes to visit.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the estimated population of monkeys in Laos is between 10,000 and 15,000. This includes a variety of species, such as the long-tailed macaque, the pig-tailed macaque, the Assamese macaque, the northern pig-tailed macaque, the rhesus macaque, the Indochinese lutung, the Phayre's langur, and the black-shanked douc langur.