An Australian man from Apollo Bay got a pretty big surprise the other day when he became “best mates” with a wild Koala outside of his house.
Bruce Atkinson noticed a female Koala on his front porch Saturday morning when he was having some breakfast. “It wandered up, which is not unusual … but this one looked a bit distraught, it was just sitting there all glum. I went out to take a photo of it and noticed all these burrs all over it.”
He said that his first attempt to make friends with the Koala did not go so well. He put a bowl of water near it and the bear just swatted it out of his hand. So he went back inside, put on a biker’s glove and grabbed a hairbrush.
He carefully approached the Koala and let it sniff the brush. . .then he began to stroke the Koala with the brush, pulling out some of the prickly burrs. Within seconds the bear decided he liked it and wanted more.
The once prickly Koala became almost cuddly as Atkinson brushed away all of the burrs. When he was finished, the bear let him sit down beside it and even tickle him under his chin and pat him on the head like he was a cat!
As you can see from the video below, Atkinson just may very well have a best mate for life!
