Tonka, a 7-year-old wombat diagnosed with clinical depression, has found comfort in his teddy bear.
The depressed wombat lives in Billabong Sanctuary in North Queensland, Australia. He became an orphan when his mother was hit by a car, an incident that started the poor wombat's depression, which was made worse in 2011 when a cyclone hit Australia and destroyed a portion of his home in the sanctuary. He has lost 20 percent of his body weight during the start of his depression.
Only his teddy bear has been able to bring him comfort since then.
"Many orphaned animals take comfort in cuddling teddies and Tonka just never grew out of it. He's really just a big baby at heart," Samantha Sherman, who helps care for Tonka, said in a statement, according to The Huffington Post.
"In the morning when the rangers get into work, Tonka likes a little cuddle and scratch before we clean out his enclosure. As soon as his den is clean, he grabs his teddy and curls up for a nap before the wombat show," Mirror reported.
Animals cannot verbally communicate their depression, but there have been studies that suggest that they, too, experience it.
"We measure interest in food that animals like a lot or in motivation for sexual activity. We also measure how they are interacting socially with other animals in the group, and changes in sleep patterns and daytime activities. Another behavior that has been used frequently to measure animal depression is whether they readily give up when exposed to a stressful situation," said Oliver Berton of The University of Pennsylvania, according to The Dodo.
There is really no telling what Tonka actually feels, but thankfully, he has his stuffed teddy bear to cuddle and lighten up his heart, even just a bit.
