This adorable red panda cub has become inseparable from a teddy that looks just like her

This is Maiya the red panda cub, and she’s had a rough start to life if we’re being honest.

Her mum Amala was carrying the infant with her mouth, but managed to injure the tiny cub’s neck in the process.

But while all was going well initially, Maiya’s neck became injured when Amala’s saliva entered the young cub’s skin folds.

Tamara Gillies, a keeper at Taronga Zoo, explained: ‘Everything went really well initially, Amala was doing some fantastic maternal behaviours.

‘The mum was actually carrying the cub around by the scruff of the neck, which is a common way that red panda mothers do carry their babies.

‘Unfortunately, her saliva or something getting into the skin folds, it actually caused a wound on the cub’s neck.’

But when Taronga Zoo removed Maiya from her mum to aid her recovery, they soon realised that the infant cub was becoming pretty lonely.

Now, she’s become inseparable with a lookalike teddy – and Maiya’s relationship with it is nothing short of adorable.

She sleeps with it, eats with it by her side, and even clings to it in the same way that she would do to her mum.

Maiya will be returning to her mum after her recovery period ends in a month’s time – and we’re seriously hoping that her teddy goes back too.

It’s all too much for our cold dead hearts to handle.