Koala drinks Australian cyclist’s water

This 27 December 2019 video from South Australia says about itself:

Koala approaches cyclist for drink from water bottle in Australia

Dec. 27 (UPI) — A cyclist in Australia stopped to give a drink from her water bottle to a thirsty koala that approached her bicycle in the road.

Anna Heusler said she and some friends were cycling in the hills near Adelaide, South Australia, when they encountered a koala in the road.

“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,” Heusler told 7News. “Naturally, we stopped because we were going to help relocate him off the road.”

A video posted to Instagram shows the koala accepting a drink from her water bottle and climbing onto her bicycle.

“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,” she said. “None of us have ever seen anything like it.”

She said the koala was escorted back to the woods at the side of the road.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

Because of the ongoing fires and heat, koalas are having a hard time and thousands have recently died. That estimate was made by Australian Environment Minister Ley yesterday.

The minister thinks that possibly 30 percent of all koalas in the affected region have died, “because about 30 percent of their environment has been destroyed”. It would then be about 8000 dead koalas. …

In the coming days, another heatwave is expected in the eastern part of Australia, which has been dealing with catastrophic forest fires for weeks. In total there are around two hundred fires, of which more than half in the state of New South Wales.

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed and so far the forest fires have cost the lives of eleven people.

KOALA RESCUERS SHARE MOVING RECOVERY STORIES Peter Luker, a volunteer firefighter and animal caretaker with the Ipswich Koala Protection Society, has seen horrific things this fire season ― but currently has the pleasure of watching little Maryanne, a baby koala who lost her mother and a claw, make a full recovery. [HuffPost]