Koala Hitches A 10-Mile Ride Under A 4×4
Imagine driving around and suddenly hearing the sound of an animal crying and smelling burning fur coming from your vehicle. That’s exactly what happened to a driver in Adelaide, Australia.
A female koala had crawled into the wheel well of a parked car and was inadverdantly taken along for a 10 mile car ride before the driver stopped and heard the cries. The fire brigade was called to take the wheel off while a wildlife rescue worker freed the koala, who was hanging onto the suspension.
Jane Brister from Fauna Rescue said:
“I could smell her burnt fur…It would have been hot in there.”
While the koala was uninjured, she was a lactating mother with a missing joey. Brister searched for the baby but was not successful:
“I searched that night and the next day, and the next, but I never found it.”
After a few days of recovery in captivity, the koala was released back into the wild. Koalas are listed as a “vulnerable” species, and there are fewer than 100,000 left in the wild, perhaps as few as 43,000 according to the Australian Koala Foundation.