Lwiro Primates, a rehabilitation centre and sanctuary for nearly 200 orphaned chimpanzees and monkeys in Congo, shared a heart-melting video of a baby chimp rescue on Wednesday. In it, tiny Mussa sits in the lap of a pilot who is flying the animal from Virunga National Park to safety with Lwiro.
"Unfortunately his family is dead," Lwiro wrote in a comment on Facebook. "We do not know how many, maybe only the mum, but most likely several members of his family were killed."
But the video drew as much attention for its bearded pilot as it did for the adorable chimp. It was partly the man's gentle manner: He calms Mussa with a quiet "shh," nuzzles and grooms the chimp and supervises as the baby touches a knob on the aircraft's instrument panel. It was also, as one Twitter user put it, because the pilot is "low-key hot."
The real name of #hotpilot, as Twitter users quickly dubbed him, is Anthony Caere, and this wasn't his first animal rescue. According to a blog post on Virunga's website, Caere is a Belgian who heads the park's four-plane Air Wing and serves as a " 'big brother' in the sky" for its rangers. Caere's duties include supporting rangers' anti-poaching patrols, doing surveillance for wildlife censuses, inspecting poaching sites and carrying out medical evacuations.
