A shocked former Playboy model has told how police have seized her two baby monkeys after it emerged they had been trafficked illegally from the wild.

Actress Nicole Bahls had kept the two youngsters, which appear to be critically endangered tufted capucins. At her farm in Itaborai, near Rio de Janeiro.

Video footage of the pair, Davi and Nicol, shows them in newborn nappies playing in a human baby cot while Nicole feeds one of them from a tiny bottle.

She said at the time: “They are two little babies who changed my life. I have to get up to give a bottle all night. I feel like a real mother.”

The reality TV star told police she had bought the monkeys from what she thought were breeders who provided authentic-looking identity documents and microchips.

Under Brazilian law, it is illegal to keep exotic animals trafficked from the wild, but owners can buy them as pets if they have bred in captivity.

Federal Police (PF) and the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) seized Nicole’s pets in a raid in January this year.

And although the actress is not being investigated, her information sparked a huge wildlife trafficking investigation in Brazil.

Three suspects were arrested in Operation Defaunation on 12th March. Including a firefighter who is understood to be the head of the crooked racket.

Woman Seized Trafficking Toucan Eggs In Her Undies Faces Jail

Local media state that the gang had forged documents and used bogus seals from two state wildlife authorities, Ibama and the State Institute of the Environment.

Shocked Nicole said: “We discovered that the documents of the two little monkeys were forged.

“And now, Ibama is going to carry out rehabilitation work so that they can return to their natural habitat, to nature. And I will collaborate to make this happen in the best way possible.”

She explained that she had got both monkeys from her former boyfriend, businessman Marcelo Viana before the coupple broke up on 10th March.

She said that the animals were free during the day at her farm where she also raises other types of animals, such as cows.

Nicole said she was shocked by the police raid.

She said: “I’m devastated. It was 90 days with them, breastfeeding, love, affection.

“They were here and saw that the animals were very well taken care of. That they were loose here on the farm, jumping in the trees. I didn’t get the monkeys to be pets.”

The influencer also appealed to others tempted to buy wild pets.

She said. “I want to make you aware not to buy wild animals or make mistakes like I did. Animal trafficking is very sad.”