Brisbane, QLD


Saturday, February 14, 2009

Koala Sam Rescued from the Bushfires.

A Country Fire Association Fire Fighter named David Tree stopped to give a Koala a drink. This is unusual because koalas rarely drink water, they usually get enough liquid from eating gum leaves. However,when they are desperate they will drink water. Besides that, they are uusually very shy of humans and will run away or scratch if you try to handle them. So you can see how desperate this wild animal is, she has burnt feet,and suffering from the heat.
This photo was splashed around the world. No wonder it is so heart wrenching. David said in an interview, that the Koala put her hand into his because he had water in his hand and it was cooling her burnt feet. He got a call to attend to another emergency and he had to leave the koala there but he rang the Animal Rescue people who came and picked her up and took her back to the animal refuge. She is called Sam.

David comes to the refuge to check on Sam. Koalas identify humans by their smell and she soon recognises David as her saviour.

11 comments:

  1. Great story Dianne. Poor little blighters. These are the lucky ones. I shudder to think of how many others perished. Let alone all the other species.

    Lovely photos Dianne. Heartwarming.

    Thank you.

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  2. Poor little girl. I saw that on the news and it tore me up right there. So sad. All those animals. I hope she'll be alright.

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  3. That is amazing!:) So touching!

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  4. Oh Diane, the thoughts of how much pain and suffering has come from these bushfires breaks my heart. This is so sweet. Isn't it amazing how wild animals will respond to love. I am amazed how far my feral cats have come to trusting me, and that raccoon also coming up for some of their food. Why he was not scared of me at all!

    I pray these babies will recover just fine, and I thank God for people like David also.

    BTW, love your slideshow on the sidebar. The pictures are absolutely incredible.

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  5. Just beautiful, brings tears to my eyes....

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  6. We watched the video with tears in our eyes. These "follow-up" photos are amazing as well - thanks for posting them, I hadn't seen them. And, I didn't know about the bears not usually drinking a lot, or about being shy. We all just want the best for them and are thankful this man took the time to be a hero! Our prayers are continuing to go up for all who have lost so much..

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  7. Diane this is truly a beautiful story with a happy ending after a week that has had a profound effect on the Australian psyche.
    In spite of the tragedy, this is a time that I am proud to be an Australian.

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  8. That site is wonderful, so touching. I'm doing a .pps files on the fires and hope to get it finished soon.

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  9. this is very touching. i saw one of the pics on the web. hope that the fires have ceased? it's difficult to find out from europe :-(

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  10. Wonderful story, thanks for sharing it.

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