Adorable moment orphaned baby kangaroo cuddles teddy bear

Orphaned Eastern Grey Kangaroo called Doodlebug hugs a teddy bear in New South Wales, Australia (Picture: Gillian Abbott)

Gillian Abbott

Tom Marshall

5 August 2015

An orphaned baby kangaroo finds comfort by cuddling a teddy bear in this stunning photo which has proved a hit on social media.

The adorable picture features a joey called Doodlebug with its arms tightly wrapped around the light-brown bear at the home of a wildlife carer in Australia.

It was tweeted today by Tim Beshara after his mother Gillian, who looks after orphaned animals in her spare time, captured the moment at her house in New South Wales.

Mr Beshara commented: "My mum (a wildlife-carer) sent me this. Showing the value of a good hug, especially for an orphaned wallaby."

He said his mother later corrected him on the species, saying the animal is a young kangaroo of the "eastern grey" breed.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">My mum (a wildlife-carer) sent me this. Showing the value of a good hug, especially for an orphaned wallaby. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wildoz?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-2296501-https://twitter.com/hashtag/wildoz?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#wildoz</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&id=222025&p=http://t.co/WuSeDrZ16s" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-2296501-http://t.co/WuSeDrZ16s" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/WuSeDrZ16s</a>— Tim Beshara (@Tim_Beshara) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/Tim_Beshara/status/628681395213209600" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-2296501-https://twitter.com/Tim_Beshara/status/628681395213209600" data-vars-event-id="c23">August 4, 2015</a>

The photo has been retweeted and favourited hundreds of times in the past few hours.