Adorable Orphaned Baby Anteaters Play at Rescue Center in Brazil

A pair of adorable baby anteaters were filmed playing at a wildlife research and conservation association in Campina Grande do Sul, Brazil, on September 27.

Goska Zdziechowska captured this video and originally uploaded it to YouTube. Zdziechowska told Storyful the anteaters, Maria and Joao, were orphaned when wildfires tore through Brazil earlier this year. One of the anteaters was found next to the dead body of its mother. The other, Zdziechowska said, was found in an area the fires had been, leading rescuers to believe the mother was dead or had escaped.

Zdziechowska told Storyful, when the pair were brought in they only weighed about 3 kg or 6.6 lbs and now they are both over 6 kg or 13 lbs.

“They play together and, in this way, also learn how to fight and protect themselves,” she said. “Until recently, they only raised one paw, leaning on the three others. Now Maria is starting to stand on her two hind legs.”

The video shows the two pups, one more committed to the play fight than the other, bopping each other with their paws and rolling around in the enclosure. Credit: Malgorzata Zdziechowska via Storyful