This is the heart-touching moment when a trapped wolf looks back at its rescuers as if to say “I’ll never fur-get you”.

The wild wolf had been found trapped inside a metal watergate on a canal in northwest China when police were called to help release it.

The wolf had apparently fallen into the canal but was too weak and injured to pull itself up onto dry land.

So police in the Xinjiang region staged a daring rescue to snare the wolf – a protected species in China – and bring it back to the banks.

Footage of the rescue shows that despite the wolf’s fearsome struggle and snapping, they managed to get a dog catcher’s loop around its neck.

Then as the wolf is landed, it is helped into a container to get it away from the industrial canalside area and back to the wild.

After a quick health check, police take the wolf to a remote landscape and then carefully release the container door.

But instead of sprinting off, the wolf lingers and gives its rescuers one last look over its shoulder before it lopes away.

The clip – shared later on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok – touched the hearts of social media users.

Douyin user ‘Unique Avatar only’ said: “I was so moved when it looked back.”

While ‘Contentment’ wrote: “All things have spirits and will in some way repay you for your kindness.”

And ‘Legacy of the sea’ commented: “Luckier than a stray dog!”