Man's kind act to save koala on road gets powerful reaction online
A South Australian motorcyclist has filmed his adorable encounter with a “feisty little” koala.
Reddit user ChequeBook shared video of his encounter with the seemingly clueless marsupial sitting on a road about one kilometre from Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills on Monday.
“Get off the road,” he tells the koala who sits staring at him.
“Come on.”
Realising the koala isn’t going to budge he picks the animal up.
The motorcyclist walks a few metres and puts it down in the grass.
However, the koala doesn’t appear to be happy and lashes out with its claws.
“It’s OK, it’s OK,” he tells the koala, trying to calm it.
He approaches it again and it seems to have calmed as it lets the motorcyclist touch its nose.
The motorcyclist told Yahoo7 the koala seemed “a bit warm” sitting on the hot road.
“He didn’t seem too upset but I don’t think he would have moved in a hurry,” he said.
“There was a group of bikes behind me and I didn’t want anyone to have any close calls.”
The video has more than 13,000 views with many praising the motorcyclist for looking after the koala.
“You’re a f****** legend mate,” one user wrote.
Another noted he picked the koala up “the correct way”.
“You can see how a tourist would want to pick up and give it a cuddle – and then recount the story when they get back home as to why they have 200 stitches holding their back and sides together,” they wrote.
Others labelled the motorcyclist “awesome”, “an absolute gentle hero” and “brave” given the koala’s claws.
“Glad you were able to get him to safety,” another added.
Some were left surprised at how the koala appeared to lash out.
“What a unit of a koala,” one user wrote.
Another added the koala was a “feisty little guy”.
Koala’s often find ways to get into the news.
A koala joey in northern NSW was cared for by vets after he was found to have 100 ticks covering his body.
Currumbin Wildlife Hospital gave the koala a blood transfusion.
In October last year, Victoria Police rescued an injured koala and dressed it in police clothes.
They nicknamed the rescued marsupial “Constable Teddy Bear”.
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