Touching Moment an Orphaned Kangaroo Hugs a Teddy Bear Amid Bushfire Crisis

Due to soaring temperatures and one of the worst droughts in years, the relentless fires have been burning since September. We’re currently in January. Just let that sink in.

New South Wales is suffering immensely at the moment.

There have been fires reported in every state, but New South Wales is truly taking a beating by bush fires and is undoubtedly the hardest hit. More than 5,000 buildings have been destroyed.

What does this mean? Well, it grants “extraordinary powers” to the NSWRFS commissioner, including the authority to allocate government resources and direct government agencies in taking action, according to CNN.

Including several volunteer firefighters.

Last month, the smoke was so bad in Sydney that air quality measured eleven times the “hazardous” level, CNN reports.

Several of Australia’s native species have been affected including kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, possums, wombats, and echidnas.

Over one billion animals have died.

CBS News reports that it is now thought that over one billion mammals, birds, and reptiles have died since September.

So many innocent creatures have died as a result of the relentless flames.

Like this koala, who was found sat along the side of a pond, mourning his friend who had tragically succumb to the smoke.

Lewis was found struggling in the burning bush and was rescued by a heroic woman who sacrificed her own clothes to protect the creature from the deadly flames.

Lewis didn’t make it. The hospital that was caring for the injured marsupial shared the news, writing: “We recently posted that ‘burns injuries can get worse before they get better’. In Ellenborough Lewis’s case, the burns did get worse, and unfortunately would not have gotten better.”

It’s feared that huge amounts of humanitarian assistance will be required to get populations anywhere near back to what they used to be.

It’s always important to focus on the positive stories in order to shine a little light upon the dark times.

And many heartwarming stories have been emerging of the adorable survivors.

An orphaned kangaroo at a sanctuary in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales has gone viral after a photo of him cuddling a teddy bear was posted to Twitter.

Tim Beshara, an adviser to the Greens party, shared the story of Doodlebug, an orphan who his mom had taken in to care for and nurse back to health, to his Twitter page. “He may have fallen out of his mother’s pouch,” Beshara told the Daily Mail. “He was a couple of months old when he was passed onto my mother’s wildlife company WIRES. She has since nursed him back to health and he is now hopping around the forest and coming back for the occasional feeding or cuddle.”

A teddy bear. Tim’s mom thought to offer the orphaned animals she was caring for a little bit of extra comfort, so she hung teddy bears around the back yard for them to play with and cuddle.

And very rarely lets his cuddly counterpart go. “They seem to respond to the toys much in the same way as a toddler,” Beshara said. “They treat it as a companion.”

To sum up the sheer devastation of these fires, keep scrolling to see a selection of photographs that sum up the scale of the mass destruction…