Koala’s are at it again, acting strangely and going viral. The latest incident saw a Koala chasing a petrified farmer trying to outrun the marsupial on a mission with her four wheeler.
“The koala bloody chased me tonight! F#$….” wrote Ebony Churchill from Adelaide on Facebook on Sunday.
“He was in love with me and I rejected him so he chased me,” the 31-year-old told jokingly told The Advertiser.
The video dairy farmer Churchill shot on Sunday has already gone viral and shows the relentless marsupial on a mission chasing after her as she tries to speed away on her four-wheeler.
When she finally stops and abandons the bike, the Koala went in for a bear hug of the buddy rear tyre.
“He was close but then he started running towards me and I thought I better speed up,” she told the Adelaide Advertiser. “But the more I sped up, the faster he got … They’ve got hard, sharp claws and I didn’t want to have him grabbing at my leg as I was on the bike.”
Commenting on the incident Deakin University wildlife and conservation biologist Desley Whisson said, “Koalas more generally run from than to people. The woman in this video did the right thing by moving away from the vehicle,” she said. “The best advice I can give to people is to not engage with a koala displaying a weird behaviour. Make sure that there is another object between you and the koala so that it can’t climb you. The claws are nasty.”
Whisson shines some light on the Koala’s strange behaviour saying the critter might have confused the sound of the bike with that of a koala mate. “Male koalas frequently bellow in response to airplanes, tractors, chain saws, etc.,” Whisson said.
“It may be that they confuse these noises as bellows by other koalas. We’re at the beginning of the breeding season so perhaps heightened testosterone levels may be responsible.”
Image: Shutterstock
Video: Youtube