http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/adelaide-family-returns-home-to-find-live-koala-in-christmas-tree/article/582050

Adelaide family returns home to find live Koala in Christmas tree

Posted Dec 3, 2020 by Karen Graham
An Adelaide Hills family returned to their home after a short outing on Wednesday to find a koala perched on the family's plastic Christmas tree, surrounded by baubles, stars, and snowflakes.
The much-loved koala has been under increasing threat across Australia in recent decades particular...
The much-loved koala has been under increasing threat across Australia in recent decades, particularly from habitat loss, disease, dog attacks and bushfires
GUILLAUME SOUVANT, AFP/File
Amanda McCormick was in shock after finding the koala in the living room of her home in Coromandel Valley, Adelaide, Australia. Her 16-year-old daughter, Taylah, had departed three hours earlier after leaving a door open for the family dog, and apparently, the curious marsupial wandered in.
"I got home from work and the dog made a beeline for the Christmas tree and I noticed all of the decorations on the floor," she told ABC Australia.
McCormick called the local Koala rescue center, 1300Koalaz. At first, the operator at the center didn't believe the story, assuming it was a prank call. It did take a bit of convincing, initially. Photographic evidence seemed to help, and a video showing the cute little intruder blinking its eyes proved the animal was not a plush toy.
"This evening our hotline operator took a call. At first, she thought she was the victim of a prank call," wrote the organization in a Facebook post on Wednesday. "But no, a koala desperate to get in the Christmas spirit had wandered into Amanda McCormick's house and decided it wanted to be the fairy on the Christmas tree."
Dee Hearne-Hellon, 1300Koalaz co-founder, told CNN News, "The koala was a healthy juvenile female and was released out the front of the house, which is in a really lovely area for koalas if they have to live amongst us. The koala was still in the same tree she chose to climb when I saw her today (Thursday)."
In celebrating the Christmas season, the adorable Koala joins "Rocky," the tiny saw-whet owl, the smallest owl in the northeast, that was rescued last week from the 75-foot tree that would become the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.
The tiny, but adult Saw-whet owl was rescued last week after accompanying the 75-foot Norway spruce from Oneonta, in upstate New York, for the 170-mile ride to New York City.