Australia, a continent that has spent millennia perfecting the art of producing animals that are either adorable, deadly, or inexplicably both, has gifted the internet with yet another masterpiece: a baby kangaroo attempting to throw hands at a swooping magpie.
The video, currently making the rounds on Instagram, stars a pint-sized joey who clearly did not get the memo that magpies are one of Australia’s most notorious aerial bullies. Every swooping season, these bold, black-and-white birds terrorize joggers, cyclists, and unsuspecting pedestrians with the confidence of someone who absolutely knows they’re in the right. They are, essentially, the world’s most judgmental security guards with wings.
But this particular magpie met its match in the form of one very small, very determined marsupial.
Rather than fleeing in sensible terror — as any seasoned Australian will tell you is the correct response to a swooping magpie — the joey stood its ground and began batting at the air with quick, gloriously clumsy little motions. The flailing was enthusiastic, ambitious, and almost entirely ineffective, which honestly just made it more heroic.
To be clear, this joey is still at the stage of life where it would normally be tucked snugly inside its mother’s pouch, and yet here it is, shadowboxing a feathered menace like it’s been training for this exact moment.
Experts in the field of Very Good Videos have confirmed this is, objectively, extremely cute. The magpie, for its part, appeared unmoved by the challenge — which tracks, because magpies are famously unimpressed by everything.
Australia: where even the babies are out here trying to fight the wildlife.
*Source: Boing Boing / Instagram*
Original story via Boing Boing
