This Cyclist Stopped To Give A Dehydrated Koala Water During The Australian Heatwave And Fires

By Mayukh Saha / Truth Theory

A dehydrated koala escaping the Australian bushfires was desperately seeking water when he managed to flag down a cyclist.

The incident took place on December 20, 2019, when Anna Heuseler was cycling with her group towards Adelaide. The group spotted the lone koala in the middle of the main road, clearly in need of water.

Due to the bushfires, the temperature was touching 40 degrees and like many other animals, this dehydrated koala was seeking water. He realized that this group of cyclists was rather friendly and he quickly scurried over to them.

Heuseler took a video of the incident which went viral in social media. The video captures how the dehydrated koala clambers to Anna’s cycles and drinks water from her bottle.

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Heuseler’s followers loved watching this kind act and adored the cute koala. They expressed their dismay at the many challenges such animals were facing because of the Australian bushfires.

Read: Vegetables Are Being Air-Dropped By Helicopters In Australia To Feed Animals Stranded By Wildfires

In an interview with 7News, Heuseler mentioned how they often spot koalas in the area. But the way this dehydrated koala interacted with her and the group was surprising.

We’ve seen literally hundreds of koalas over the years, we have never seen a koala do this. We were descending from Norton Summit Road back into the city early this morning and we came around a bend and there was a koala sitting in the middle of the road.

Naturally, we stopped because we were going to help relocate him off the road.

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Heuseler continued saying:

I stopped on my bike and he walked right up to me, quite quickly for a koala, and as I was giving him a drink from all our water bottles, he actually climbed up onto my bike.

None of us have ever seen anything like it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6jY7j7FlK9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Read: Farmer Sets Up Trough For Animals To Drink From While The Australian Bushfires Rage On

The Australian bushfires have devastated large areas and koalas are now pushed towards being endangered, like many other endemic animals. This dehydrated koala managed to escape the fires without much hurt but the same cannot be said for most of its species. Anna Heuseler and her group of cyclists escorted the koala carefully to nearby trees where he would be comparatively safe.

 

Featured Image: bikebug2019/Instagram