Baby Koala Refuses To Leave His Mother While She Undergoes Emergency Surgery

Can a baby koala change the way you feel about your loved ones?

If you think humans are the only creatures with the ability to show love and compassion, think again. This adorable baby koala hugging his mother while she undergoes a life-saving surgery is going to make you want to hug your loved ones. If you know babies, you know that they don’t like to be separated from their mothers, there’s this bond we can never understand. While they’ll be okay to chill with other family members, but only for a short period of time, because mommy means the world to them, naturally! Baby animals are no different.

Baby koalas are called joeys and according to National Geographic, when they’re born they’re literally the size of a jellybean! Newborn joeys have no hair, no ears and they’re blind so nature invented an incredible way to keep them safe. As soon as joeys are born, they crawl into their mother’s pouch and stay there, all safe and warm, for about six months. It takes joeys about six months to grow hair and ears and learn how to walk, after which they come out of their mother’s pouch, ready to tackle the world. Here’s an interesting fact: joeys are weaned only when they’re about one-year-old!i

One fine morning, a 420-gram joey called Phantom was crossing the road with his mom Lizzy in Brisbane’s west in Queensland when they were suddenly hit by a car on the Warrego Highway at Coominya. While six-months-old Phantom escaped without any injuries, Lizzy was left with facial damage and a punctured lung that had to be drained out. Wildlife Warriors immediately transported Lizzy and Phantom to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital where Lizzy was prepped to undergo the life-saving surgery.

In case you didn’t know, Wildlife Warriors was founded by the famous Steve Irwin himself, who sadly passed away on the 4th of September 2006. Steve was pierced in the chest by a stingray while shooting in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. In March 2004, the Australian Zoo Wildlife Hospital was inaugurated in honor of Lyn Irwin, Steve’s mother. Coming back to our story, the vets agreed that since Phantom was too young to be separated from his mother, they allowed him to cling on to her while they sedated her; prepping her for surgery.

During the entire surgery, Phantom wrapped his tiny arms around his mother’s neck, occasionally holding her chin with his tiny paw. After Lizzy’s punctured lung was repaired, she was put on antibiotics and hospital veterinary nurse Jamie-Lynn Nevers confirmed that she was recovering well. Even while Lizzy was recovering Phantom refused to be separated from her, in fact, he perched on her head, as if trying to keep her warm. After Lizzy’s recovery, she and her loving baby koala were returned to the wild.