YouTube videos
YouTube videos
stated on January 25, 2020 in a YouTube post:

Says a video shows a fox allowing itself “to feed koala babies in Australia.”

False

No, this isn’t a video of a fox feeding baby koalas

If your time is short

A miscaptioned video on YouTube shows a fox feeding baby foxes, not baby koalas. 

 
See the sources for this fact-check

“This is motherhood,” reads the description of a recent YouTube video claiming to show a fox feeding baby koalas in Australia. But people commenting on the clip, posted by an account called “Lets Make it Viral LMIV,” weren’t buying it. 

“ROFL,” one person wrote. “Those are fox pups, and, no koala is going to get milk like that.”

“Reported for being fake,” someone else said. 

The video, which has been viewed thousands of times, was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

That’s because they’re foxes, not koalas. Wildlife photographer Luc Durocher posted the video on Facebook in December 2014. He posted it again on Jan. 28, after Snopes reported that it contacted him about the miscaptioned video on YouTube. This time, he was more specific in his description of the video. 

“The young are thirsty,” he wrote in French. “Red foxes.”

He places the video in a park in Montreal, Canada. 

In another video of red foxes suckling that Durocher posted on YouTube in 2014, you can more clearly see their faces — and there’s no confusing them for koalas. 

We rate the YouTube post that claims these baby animals are koalas False.

 
Our Sources

YouTube, A fox allows itself to feed koala babies in Australia, Jan. 25, 2020

Facebook post, Dec. 26, 2014

Facebook post, Jan. 28, 2020

Snopes, Did a video show a fox suckling koalas orphaned by Australia fires? Jan. 27, 2020

YouTube, Renards roux - Tétée, Nov. 21, 2014