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Woman saves pair of brawling koalas from oncoming truck

By Daniel Uria
An Australian woman broke up a fight between two koalas on an Australia highway to rescue them from the path of an oncoming truck. Screen capture/Storyful/Inform Inc.
An Australian woman broke up a fight between two koalas on an Australia highway to rescue them from the path of an oncoming truck. Screen capture/Storyful/Inform Inc.

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June 26 (UPI) -- A woman helped break up a fight between two brawling koalas to protect them from an oncoming truck on an Australian highway.

Sharon Brecely shared video of the koalas duking it out in the middle of a Portland highway, as she attempted to shoo them off the road to avoid the path of an oncoming semi-truck.

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Brecely stood and waved the truck to the side of the road as she pleaded with the marsupials to stop fighting and get out of the road.

"I stopped first and tooted the horn for a little while and they weren't going to move," She told 9News.

She managed to guide the truck into the emergency lane just in time for it to narrowly avoid striking the koalas, who ended their scuffle after being frightened by the passing vehicle.

"He was great, if he didn't do that, if he didn't slow down and move he would've collected them both," Brecely said of the truck driver. "They wouldn't have had a hope. They were on his side of the road and, yeah, they both would've been goners."

While the speeding truck managed to break up the fight, the stubborn koalas remained on the side of the road.

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Brecely waved a towel at the "stupid" bears to scare them off the road, as she feared they were too heavy and agitated to pick up.

"They're so silly, they're so slow," she said. "I think, the biggest one probably weighed about [44 pounds]. He was heavy. And they were angry so I wasn't going to pick them up."

Eventually Brecely managed to guide the koalas to safety and Melbourne Zoo zookeeper Zoe Rowell praised her for her quick thinking and decision making.

"It's great that she used her voice to sort of move them on and you could, if safe to do so, position your car so that it would encourage them to move off the road," Rowell said. "As cute as cuddle as koalas look, they can get quite aggressive as you can see them tumbling around there."

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