Students use canoe to give stranded koala a lift

Aug. 29 (UPI) -- A group of Australian students on a river trip filmed the moment they used a canoe to give a lift to a stranded koala.

Kirra Coventry, a La Trobe University Outdoor and Environmental Education student and Bendigo SES volunteer, posted a video to Facebook showing the group pushing a canoe toward a koala that appeared to be stranded on a tree in the flooded Murray River.

The koala climbs into the canoe and is towed to shore, where it wanders away.

Coventry said the koala may have attempted to swim, as its back legs were wet when they found it, before changing its mind and staying in the tree.

"I think he potentially tested the waters and thought the better of it," Coventry told the Bendigo Advertiser. "That one particular spot in the river there was a really, really quick flow."