Sam became the most famous koala in the world when firefighter David Tree stopped to give her a drink amid the devastation of Australia's deadly bushfires.
A photograph of the encounter, featured on the front page of the Herald yesterday, was published and broadcast by newspapers and TV stations around the world.
Mr Tree noticed the injured koala as his fire patrol passed burned-out forest near Mirboo North, about 150km east of Melbourne.
The animal was moving gingerly on scorched paws, and Mr Tree could see she was in pain. She stopped when she saw him.
"It was amazing; he turned around, sat on his bum and sort of looked at me with [a look] like, 'Put me out of my misery'," he said yesterday.
"I yelled out for a bottle of water. I unscrewed the bottle, tipped it up on his lips and he just took it naturally.
"He kept reaching for the bottle, almost like a baby."
Koalas normally drink almost no water because they get fluids from the leaves they eat.
Animal welfare officials later took Sam from her burned-out home - discovering that Mr Tree had it wrong when he referred to her as "he".
But although the animal is a "she", the name Sam has stuck.
Coleen Wood, manager of the Mountain Ash Wildlife Shelter where Sam was taken for treatment of burns to her paws, said she was expected to make a full recovery.
She would be released back into nature once a suitable habitat was found.
"The hardest part is going to be trying to find enough habitat to support these guys," Ms Wood said.
Koalas are especially vulnerable to bushfires because they move slowly on the ground.
NZ Herald Thursday Feb 12, 2009
1 comment:
It's an amazing story...
and horrific that many of these fires have been deliberately set. All the lives lost, people and animals, not to mention their habitats. Disgusting.
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