Your morning adorable: Ticklish koala flicks its ears

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We are so crazy about YouTube user cleelun‘s video of her encounter with a ticklish koala that we don’t even know what to do with ourselves.

This young koala is a resident of the Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney, Australia. Like others of its species, it’s well adapted to a life in the treetops -- koalas have two thumbs on their hands, and the skin on the bottom of their feet has ridges that, rather like the tread on the soles of humans’ shoes, provide traction.

(Of course, we’re in total agreement with naturalist and blogger David Mizejewsk that, despite how very tempting it would be to reach out and touch a koala, you shouldn’t try this at home -- or in the wild. ‘Never approach any wild animal, because even cute ones will not hesitate to bite and claw you to protect themselves,’ Mizejewski wrote on his Discovery News blog. ‘In fact, in the wild koalas have a reputation for being rather nasty when they feel threatened.’)

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-- Lindsay Barnett

Video: cleelun via YouTube