marsupials

This handsome Koala certainly lives up to his name -- Triumph. Meet the adorable koala Triumph, who was born with a foot missing. Triumph was taken into care back in 2017 after being spotted with his dying mother in New South Wales. 

Vets soon realized Triumph was missing a limp, due to an inexplicable birth defect. They could also tell that his missing limp would sometimes cause him pain. His rescuer and vet nurse, Marley Christian, from Friends of Koala, began to dress Triumph's stump in dolls' socks and little booties. They have discovered that when doing so, it helped relieve some of the sensitivity Triumph was feeling. 

Marley Christian searched the globe for someone to make a prosthetic, unfortunately, no one was willing to take on the task. "We were told it had not been done and it could not be done," Marley Christian told ABC. 

An American company that specialized in animal prosthetics decided to take Triumph's case, but sadly, they could not manufacture a design that would comfortably stay on. It wasn't until Marley Christian mentioned Triumph's case in passing to an Australian dentist, Lismore dental prosthetist Jon Doulman, who then volunteered to help build Triumph a prosthetic foot himself. 

And he succeeded. 

Story via ABC

Have you ever heard of the spotted-tail tiger quoll? Well, if you haven't, you're about to fall in love with them. They are so cute and criminally underrated and deserving of love. These cutie patooties are the second largest extant carnivorous marsupial, which, in simple words, means that they're tiny. 

Of course, you know why that's important information - tiny animals are extra cute animals and you will extra love them for it. They're also endangered, so it's all the more important to bring attention to them and their situation, and what's a better way of bringing awareness about them than fawning over their cuteness? 

Be still our tender hearts! There is absolutely nothing more precious than when two different animal species become best friends! 

During the COVID-19 lockdown at the Australian Wildlife Park, a koala named, Elsa, and a wombat named, Hope, shared an enclosure together. 

It was during that time that they two struck up the most adorable friendship. They're now being called, "lockdown BFFs." The two marsupials were hand raised by the keepers at the Australia Reptile Park, wombats are actually the closest relative species to the koala, so their keepers figured it would be a friendship match in heaven... they were right. 

Now that the park has re-opened, the keepers are making sure that the two are able to see each other every day!