Koala Wanders Into Australian Hospital Waiting Room
LONDON— -- A koala made a late-night visit to an Australian hospital recently, with footage of the wandering marsupial now being viewed more than 130,000 times since it was posted on Facebook Monday.
The animal stopped by Hamilton Base Hospital in Victoria, southern Australia, on April 20. He is seen hopping around the waiting room of the emergency department before going back out again.
"You never know who is going to stroll through the doors at the Hamilton Base Hospital,” the post from the Western District Health Service read.
Hospital chief executive Rohan Fitzgerald told Australian public media ABC that the animal was quite casual and seemed to know exactly what he was doing.
He was nicknamed Blinky Bill after a 1930s children's fictional character created by New Zealand-born Australian author Dorothy Wall.
Koalas have been listed as “vulnerable” under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act since 2012, and the Australian Koala Foundation believes there could be fewer than 80,000 remaining today.
The Australian icon is not dangerous: "They live in our backyards. It's up to us to keep them alive and healthy in the bush,” according to nonprofit Save the Koalas.
