[Lara]

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Thirsty koala
Sam the koala survives the bushfire and drinks three bottles of water courtesy of CFA volunteer David Tree [02:31] Herald Sun | 11 February 2009

Edited to add: I think Sam turned out to be Samantha, not Samuel. lol

[redtail]

As I'm on dial up, I couldn't watch this, but wow, just as I was reading it, the same story came up on the news, how amazing, and touching.

[Doody]

(((Lara))) Thanks for much for that! *tear That poor little furry baby! Sigh, continued prayers for everyone there.
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[karousel]

Thank you so much for sharing it. Brought tears to my eyes. So glad the koala survived and let the fireman help him.

[undiagnosedillness]

I've just this minute seen this on the News.
This is just the sadest time for so many............

[Kitty]

What a precious little creature. God bless that fireman for taking the time to give him a drink.

[mrsD]

Looks like all the trees are burned. Don't Koalas eat eucalyptus only?

There is a show on Animal Planet called "Growing Up"...

They have "Growing up Leopard, Growing up Bear, Camel,
Moose, etc." They had "Growing Up Marsupial" and those Koala babies were really cute. The handlers became very attached to them and cried when they had to give them up.
They appear very docile and sweet.

[Lara]

She's in hospital... "Sam" that is. See quote below which is from the first article url I posted below. Her feet were burned.

Sam is being treated at the Mountain Ash Wildlife Shelter in Rawson, 100 miles (170 kilometers) east of Melbourne, where she has attracted the attention of a male koala, nicknamed "Bob," manager Coleen Wood said. The two have been inseparable, with Bob keeping a protective watch over his new friend, she said.

They can be docile. They also have very sharp claws and can rip the flesh to shreds. LOL Looks can be deceiving. Same with kangaroo.

Sadly there would be very few still alive in those areas, mrsD. The ferocity of the fire was hot enough to melt cars. I've seen footage of molten metal streams in the parched earth.

Usually koalas don't need water as they get their water out of the copious amounts of leaves that they eat.

There are agencies in Victoria looking for and caring for the injured wildlife.

I was reading about a zoo somewhere in that region that had only endangered species in it. They were transported to a zoo in Melbourne early when it looked as if there was going to be a disaster.

A lot of the areas are roadblocked. Too dangerous and for health reasons, the residents aren't allowed to go back there just yet. The forensic teams are having to sift through the area first. PLUS the fires are still raging.

WARNING: Some of this article is very unpleasant reading...


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By KRISTEN GELINEAU – 1 hour ago


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edited to add:
btw, many species of eucalypt regenerate very quickly after fire. Some native species actually need fire to open seed pods.



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good article!

Fire has been present on the Australian continent for millions of years. Many of our plants and animals have evolved to survive fire events and subsequently most Australian ecosystems have developed very specialised relationships with fire.

The long-term effect of fire on a landscape varies according to sequences of fire events, rather than to a single fire event. Sequences of fire events are known as 'fire regimes'. Fire regimes are determined by three factors: intensity (how severe fires are), frequency (how often fires occur) and season (the time of the year fires occur).

[lor]

How sweet. That man was wonderful to the koala.
We used to have a koala at our zoo in Ohio. But the eucalyptus was getting expensive.