A vet has shared video of the touching moment in which a koala that lost its mother in the bushfires reached out to embrace a grey teddy bear.
The orphaned marsupial was being cradled by a woman in a veterinary office when the toy was held out in front of the koala.
She gripped onto the soft toy, nuzzling at it with its face in a tender moment that showed the instinct to seek comfort with what it thought was an adult koala.
The young marsupial had just lost its own mother in the bushfires in Victoria's south-west.
The video was captured by American vet Paul Ramos, who had come over to Australia to help treat the animals caught up in the bushfires, and he shared it on Instagram.
'This little girl unfortunately just lost her mother. People and Nature: Truly we are all connected and we can, and must do better,' he wrote.
