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Katrina Boyle filmed her son-in-law, Will Thornton, as he stepped in to help a marsupial crossing the Gold Coast Highway in Burleigh Heads, Queensland.

Two rescued koalas treated for a life-threatening disease will be released back into the wild by Queensland researchers as part of a project to help protect the threatened species and improve genetic diversity. The Living Koala Genome Bank project aims to address the increasing threat of local koala extinction due to habitat loss and disease. Dreamworld Wildlife Foundation General Manager and University of Queensland Adjunct Associate Professor Al Mucci said he was pleased to see successful results from the conservation effort. “Two animals have been cleaned, treated for chlamydia infection and vaccinated, and will be released back into the wild...

This family in south Australia didn’t need to buy a new ornament for their Christmas tree this year. That’s because they unexpectedly got a new one – and it’s alive! The McCormicks decided to adorn their faux fir tree with silver, pink, and blue decorations for this year. While the old plastic leaves of their Christmas tree already looked worn, they made up for it by adding colorful baubles on each branch and wrapping twinkling lights around it. Little did they know that another piece of ornament would attach itself to their tree very soon. 16-year-old Taylah McCormick was the...

A woman near Adelaide had the best tree-topper of all time—at least for a day.Amanda McCormick found that her Christmas tree had a new ornament after a live koala wandered into her home and snuggled up the branches of the white pine. Lucky for the internet, she took pictures before calling a wildlife rescue group, 1300KOALAZ. “Our hotline operator took a call,” the charity wrote on FB. “At first she thought she was the victim of a prank call.” They merrily reported that the koala was “desperate to get in the Christmas spirit.” Amanda, who lives in Coromandel Valley in...

Taylor, a 4-year-old English springer spaniel, has been among the hard working rescuers during Australia’s bushfire crisis. When told: “Koala, Find!”, Taylor ventures out into burnt-out bushland, finding injured marsupials by sniffing out the scent of their fur or their faeces, also known as scat. Each time she finds a koala, she is rewarded with a tennis ball or culinary treat. The fires have killed 29 people and razed bushland across an area the size of Bulgaria.

Thousands of koalas are believed to have died from the intense heat and bush fires gripping Australia Meanwhile, the fire danger in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory has been upgraded to severe as temperatures rise A desperate koala suffering in 40 degree-heat in Australia approached a group of cyclists to drink from a water bottle, according to media reports, as thousands of koalas are feared to have died from the intense heat and bush fires gripping the country, with the fire danger increasing on Saturday as temperatures soared. The cyclists near Adelaide saw the koala in the...

A spokesperson from the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital said the marsupial's "feet are completely burnt and he has burns to his chest and stomach. "He has been bandaged and given antibiotics but will take a lot of looking after, if he pulls through," the spokesperson told 9News. In Sydney, more than 50 people were treated for asthma and breathing-related problems on Tuesday as smoke blown from NSW bushfires engulfed Australia's largest city in thick smoke. Air quality dropped to "hazardous" levels in the Sydney area overnight Tuesday, according to the New South Wales Bureau of Meteorology. "I was up checking...

A koala in Australia survived a lengthy trip while clinging to the axle of a four-wheel drive vehicle. The driver was unaware of the koala clinging to his wheel throughout the 10-mile journey through Adelaide until he stopped his car after being flagged down by other motorists. He then heard the animal's cries coming from underneath the vehicle and called the Koala Rescue Hotline, which sent rescuer Jane Brister to the scene. Brister then contacted Metropolitan Fire Service to help remove the vehicles wheel to free the koala. "I could smell her burnt fur," Brister told The Guardian. "It would...

A rare white koala joey has been born at a Queensland zoo, and the search is now on for the right name. Australia Zoo, north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast, welcomed its first white koala joey this breeding season. The female is not albino — its extremely pale colouration is caused by a recessive gene and thought to be inherited from mother Tia, which has had other pale coloured joeys in the past. Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital director Dr Rosie Booth said it was more unusual to see a koala with fur this light — and with eyes and...

SYDNEY -- Baseball fans and Dodgers fans have been listening to the musical, knowing voice of Vin Scully for 65 years. If anyone's an authority on the game, it's him. So hearing Scully rave about the entire experience of the Opening Series is a good clue that the first regular-season Major League Baseball action Down Under, and the week-long celebration of Australian culture that surrounded it, amounted to one smashing success. "Everybody talks about the long trip from Los Angeles to Sydney -- 14, 15 hours, whatever it is, and another 14 to 15 back -- but I will tell...

(Sept. 17) -- The world's koala population is being ravaged by an epidemic that would seem at odds with the animal's image as the cuddly emblem of Australia. According to researchers, 50 to 80 percent of the marsupials are infected with a disease commonly associated with human promiscuity: chlamydia. That's right, chlamydia. The situation is so dire, in fact, that experts fear the koala may become extinct in a few decades if a vaccine isn't developed.

AN autopsy performed on baby koala Doug shows his killer executed the defenceless animal at close range with an air rifle. Pictures: Doug the baby koalaVeterinarians believe the trigger was pulled by a person standing above Doug after shooting his mother Meryl. The dehydrated joey, who was losing blood, and his mother suffered immense pain for 10 days until found at the base of a tree in Morayfield, north of Brisbane, on Tuesday.

The baby koala affectionately known as Doug has died after being shot with an air rifle north of Brisbane this week. The male joey had been on life support at the Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast, after he and his mother were found on Tuesday with slug gun wounds at Morayfield. The joey, who was months old and weighed only one kilogram, died late this afternoon on an operating table. He had also been suffering from pneumonia and was on oxygen because of the poor condition of his lungs. Yesterday vets said the koala was expected to make a...

A GUNMAN shot a koala in a tree then finished it off with more rounds after it fell to the ground west of Melbourne today. Police said the incident happened at Hopetoun Park, near Bacchus Marsh west of Melbourne, where a blue four-wheel-drive utility pulled up beside a tree on the Werribee River at 7:50am (AEDT) today, the Herald Sun reports. A witness has told investigators three men climbed from the vehicle and one of them shot the animal as it sat on a branch. It was blasted two more times after crashing to the ground.

UPDATE 2.31pm: SAM the Koala today became a permanent part of Victoria's history after going on display at the Melbourne Museum. The Herald Sun this morning revealed the first images of the stuffed koala, who became a symbol of hope amid the devastation of Black Saturday. Victorians took Sam to their hearts when a remarkable photo of the singed koala drinking water from CFA firefighter David Tree's drink bottle was flashed around the world.

Climate change threatens the survival of dozens of animal species from the emperor penguin to koalas, according to a report released Monday at the UN climate summit. Rising sea levels, ocean acidification and shrinking polar ice are taking a heavy toll on species already struggling to cope with pollution and shrinking habitats, said the study from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an intergovernmental group. "Humans are not the only ones whose fate is at stake here in Copenhagen -- some of our favourite species are also taking the fall for our CO2 emissions," said Wendy Foden,...

THE Federal Government must stop counting trees and start counting koalas as the animals suffer dramatic declines, it was claimed yesterday. Scientists will meet today in Canberra to debate whether koalas should be made a threatened species under federal laws. The Australian Koala Foundation yesterday released figures which it claimed showed falls in koala numbers across NSW and Australia were so dramatic it was vital they were granted federal government protection. And the conservation group said it feared Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett would refuse to list koalas as endangered because there was supposedly enough bush for them.

Conservationists have delivered five dead koalas to Queensland's Parliament House, saying the marsupials are on the brink of extinction in urban Australia. A hearse on Friday delivered five coffins each bearing a dead koala, with protesters placing the open caskets on the footpath outside parliament in Brisbane. The dead marsupials were collected by Vanda Grabowski in the Moreton Bay region of southern Queensland. She said the frozen bodies were brought to Brisbane to emphasise the plight of the koalas in southeast Queensland and in other parts of Australia. "I have a permit through Queensland Park and Wildlife Service (QPWS) who...

AUSTRALIA'S most loved koala will be stuffed and displayed in the Melbourne Museum following her death during surgery. The image of Sam the koala holding hands with Country Fire Authority (CFA) firefighter David Tree and sipping from his water bottle in the aftermath of the Black Saturday bushfires was beamed around the world as a symbol of hope in the days following the disaster. Sam's bushfire injuries had healed but the four-year-old animal was put down on Thursday during major surgery to remove cysts associated with chlamydia, a life-threatening disease that causes cervical infection and has ravaged Victoria's koala population....

ADELAIDE, Australia — Sam the koala, who gained worldwide fame and sympathy when she was rescued during Australia's devastating wildfires this year, died Thursday during an operation meant to save her from a life-threatening disease. The 4-year-old koala had developed cysts associated with urogenital chlamydiosis, which affects up to 50 percent of Australia's koala population. During surgery, the disease was found to be so advanced that it was inoperable and Sam was put to sleep, said Peita Elkhorne, spokeswoman for the lawyers that represent the shelter where the koala had lived since the February fires. "It was so severe that...