Frightened anteater raises its 'hands' after fleeing firefighters trying to rescue it from blaze

In this cute but poignant moment, a collared anteater 'surrenders' to firefighters as it tries to flee a forest fire in Brazil.

The furry creature stands on its hind legs and raises its arms, as if giving itself up, after firefighters helped to guide it to safety while battling the raging fire in the municipality of Ipueiras in north-eastern Ceara state.

Anteaters are known to stretch their arms out in the air when they feel threatened in order to appear larger and so that it looks as though they're about to attack.

An anteater stands on its back legs and stretches its arms out in a gesture it adopts when feeling threatened as firefighters attempt to rescue the furry creature from a forest fire in Brazil. While some say the gesture looks like a criminal surrendering, others say it reminds them of a martial arts stance

However, the gesture can seem rather comical to most people.

While the stripy animal in this footage - filmed by the rescuers - resembles a guilty person who has been caught, similar videos of other anteaters in the past look more like the creature is adopting a martial arts stance.

The rescue took place on October 2, when firefighters guided the anteater to a nearby fire-free area and left it there in safety.

The anteater then scuttles up a nearby bank of soil and into a tree.

After being guided to safety, the anteater scuttles up a nearby bank of soil and into a tree to escape the forrest fire

According to the firefighters, rescuing the animal and fighting the blaze was a difficult mission, given the dense tree cover and the thorny foliage of the abundant macambira plants in the area.

The collared anteater - also known as the lesser anteater or southern tamandua - is a solitary animal native to South America that inhabits both wet and dry forests.

Collared anteaters are not regarded as a threatened species.

However, they are sometimes killed by hunters to stop them from killing dogs or for the thick tendons in their 37 to 67 cm (15 to 26 in) long tails, from which rope is made.