Australia’s devastating bushfires have been raging since even before the official start of the country’s fire season in early June 2019. While all available firefighters, volunteers, and fire management retirees are hard at work trying to extinguish the fires, more people are pouring in from all over the world to lend a helping hand.

Not just for battling the flames, but also for rescuing the masses of displaced animals, particularly the koala.

With over 46 million acres of habitat burned in recent months, it is estimated that over a billion animals have been killed as a direct result of the fires.

This koala joey’s mom was one of them.

Paul Ramos is an American-based veterinarian who has been volunteering with relief efforts for animals affected by Australia’s bushfires.

When an orphaned baby koala was brought into his care, it seemed there was nothing that could console her.

Anxious, terrified, and wanting her mom, the little joey just kept covering her eyes with her hands. Feeling awful for the poor, scared girl, Ramos realized he knew just the thing to do to give her a little bit of comfort.

The compassionate veterinarian surprised his new charge with a stuffed koala bear to soothe her nerves. Granted, it wasn’t anywhere near as good as having her mom to cling to, but there’s no question she was happy for the substitute.

Ramos recorded himself giving the stuffed koala to the baby joey and his video quickly went viral.

It was uploaded to Instagram just under a month ago now and has been spreading over the internet much like the bushfires have over the country. With the entire world tuned into the tragic loss of lives, forest habitat, and countless animals being consumed by the fires, this video is a heartwrenching reminder of what so many people are fighting to save.

A woman who was helping Ramos was holding the joey in her lap when the vet walked up and handed her the big, stuffed koala.

The stuffed animal caught the little koala’s attention right away. She pulled her hand from her face and moved toward the toy to take a closer look.

Almost immediately, the sweet baby koala reaches out her tiny arms to grab the stuffed toy and pull it closer to herself. She gives it a tentative sniff and instantly nibbles and tries to suckle from the stuffed animal. When that didn’t do anything for her, though, she gave up on nibbling and just clung to the stuffed bear in a heartbreaking hug.

Once she has the bear, the joey isn’t letting go.

You can tell that, even though it’s not the real thing, this baby koala was grateful to have the comfort of something soft and fuzzy with a familiar face to cling to.

While it’s an absolutely heartbreaking situation, it gives us hope to know that there are so many kind and compassionate people donating their time, effort, and money to make a difference in the interrupted lives of these innocent animals.

According to a recent study released by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), over 5,000 koala bears have perished as a direct result of the fires just from October to January. An “addendum” will be added to the study after their numbers are tallied from January to February 10th, 2020, where the number of dead koalas is expected to be far higher.

The study also focused on the Koala population decline as a result of drought, climate change, and human activities in the last three Koala generations.

What it found was that, in this time period, over two-thirds of the NSW koala population has died off.

The study calls for legislation to graduate the Koala to the critically endangered species list, at the very least on an emergency basis.

“Truly we are all connected and we can, and must do better 🌏💚. 💚” Ramos wrote in his video caption, and we wholeheartedly agree.

To learn more about how you can help, visit Disaster Philanthropy. To see the tear-jerking moment this baby koala clings to her stuffed animal for comfort, watch the video below.

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Source: ABC News/Paul Ramos