Koalas are adorable tiny bear-looking animals. They are known to be a native Australian animal. They are also called koala “bears” though they are not actually bears nor a close relative creature of any kind.

According to National Geographic, koalas don’t usually drink- instead, they eat eucalyptus leaves to keep and to maintain the moisture that their body needs.

They’re normally eating when they are not sleeping and they can eat more than a pound of eucalyptus leaves a day. In fact, they can also store leaves in their cheek pouches.

Australia is known as ‘the land Down Under’ for its position in the southern hemisphere. Back in 2018, the Australians suffered from intense hot weather. It didn’t get better in January where temperatures reached as high as 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

In January 2019, residents were advised to stay indoors and to keep an eye on their home pets.

Unfortunately, wild animals were left in the open with only a limited source of safe drinking water. Unlike home pets, they didn’t have many options in keeping themselves cool and moist.

The extremely hot weather caused wildfires across the region. It brought even more danger to wild animals.

The people also lost their source of electricity when overworked power grids collapsed. The town of Port Augusta peaked at 121 degrees Fahrenheit.

Temperatures reached over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and a lot of wild animals needed help.

Amidst the scorching heat, a group of cyclists bravely rode through the suffocatingly high-heat when they saw a pitiful, thirsty koala suffering from heat-exhaustion on the road.

Anna Heusler was able to capture it on video and shared it on Instagram. In the video, an undeniably thirsty koala climbed up the bicycle in order to have a better reach of the water bottle.

“This koala walked right up to me as I was descending and climbed up onto my bike while I gave him water. Best thing to happen to me on a ride ever. There were about a dozen cyclists around me watching this and several commented that it was genuinely the best thing they’ve witnessed. What a truly wonderful experience.”

In another video, a husband and wife helped another poor koala.

It was an extremely hot morning in January, the hottest one on record, Jan. 24, 2019. The married couple was biking in the middle of the steaming road and on their way home, the husband spotted a lethargic koala on the side of the road.

It appeared that the poor animal was all beaten up by the heat of the sun.

It probably ran out of energy because it was moving very slow and it couldn’t even lift its head high.

The spike in temperature had dried up all the water sources for all these wild animals. There was a huge drought on the land that forced them to get out of their natural habitats and seek help from humans.

The kind-hearted man didn’t think twice and went down on his knees to help the koala in need.

They set up a basin and filled it with water so the koala could dip its paws down to cool them off. The man also got bottled water and quenched the little creature’s thirst.

It almost looked like the koala wanted to gulp the entire bottle in one go. It must’ve been so thirsty and hungry, we can only imagine the kind of suffering that these wild animals went through during that time.

The man continued to convince the koala to give its paws a little shower. Then, all of a sudden, the koala grabbed his hand as it asked for more water.

When the bottled water was back in his mouth, the koala kept holding the man’s hand.

This time it was like it was showing gratitude to the couple’s kindness. A “thank you” that the koala was only able to show through actions.

“This sweet little koala drank endlessly from a water bottle while we were doing our best to encourage it to move toward the sink we provided so it could cool its paws in the water.”

Watch how the koala showed its appreciation towards the man who saved its life in the video below.

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Source: Animal Channel, bikebug2019, Diamond Antics, National Geographic