Orphaned Baby Kangaroos Cuddling In Laundry Baskets May Be The Cutest Things You See Today
It may be hard to believe, but a newborn kangaroo is no larger than a jellybean. Adult male 'roos can grow to be 6 feet tall and weigh up to 200 pounds, but a joey enters the world tiny, blind, hairless, and helpless. It spends the next eight or so months living in its mother's pouch as it continues developing.
When these tiny marsupials first start peeking out of their protective pouches, at around four to seven months of age, they are utterly adorable, with their small faces, oversized ears, and fuzzy fur. (You can safely add baby kangaroos to the list of baby animals you didn't realize you were obsessed with.) There's only one thing cuter than one joey — a whole group of them!
@thekangaroosanctuary A little peek inside our baby kangaroo rescue centre at a few of our gorgeous orphans Barnaby, Astrid, Jackie, Bella, Jules, Jodie, TJ, Bamba, Tim Tam, Josh, Sparky and Kumana. 😍 Our orphans thrive and form strong bonds when they are snuggled together. This is because they receive similar love, warmth, breathing and heartbeat as they would in their mum's pouch.
A sweet TikTok video that's been viewed more than 1.4 million times and liked over 183,000 times shows several of the orphaned joeys kept at the Kangaroo Sanctuary in Alice Springs, Australia, as they snuggle together in twos and threes inside laundry baskets. Each joey has its own individual pillowcase, mimicking a mother's pouch. The camera stops on each baby in turn: Barnaby, Astrid, Jackie, Bella, Jules, Jodie, TJ, Bamba, Tim Tam (named for a popular Australian chocolate biscuit), Josh, Sparky, and Kumana. The video's caption explains, "Our orphans thrive and form strong bonds when they are snuggled together. This is because they receive similar love, warmth, breathing, and heartbeat as they would in their mum's pouch."
The undeniable cuteness of baby kangaroos
The Kangaroo Sanctuary rescues and rehabilitates orphaned baby 'roos with the goal of releasing them back into the wild. Any kangaroos that are too ill, injured, or accustomed to humans to survive in the wild get to live out the rest of their days at the 188-acre sanctuary.
Many viewers of the TikTok video cheekily offered to take some of the joeys off their hands. "I'll take one basket please," wrote one person, while another joked, "I came here to request a bushel as well." A third quipped, "Do you deliver?" One netizen called the gathering of joeys "the cutest thing I have ever seen," and another commented, "Ok so 'Running a baby kangaroo orphanage' was not offered as a choice on career day at my school."
Want to see more orphaned baby animals who are receiving loving care? Check out this story about Xena, a shelter dog who "adopts" a litter of orphaned puppies and treats them like her own, or Casper the owl, a "natural mother" to 500 rescued babies.