This photo released by Nadia Tugwell shows a koala inside her car in Adelaide, Australia, on Monday. Photo / AP
This photo released by Nadia Tugwell shows a koala inside her car in Adelaide, Australia, on Monday. Photo / AP
A koala has been rescued after causing a five-car pileup while trying to cross a six-lane freeway in southern Australia.
Police said the crash in heavy Monday morning traffic in Adelaide caused some injuries but no one required an ambulance.
The animal's rescuer said she got out of her carto investigate what had caused the pileup. Nadia Tugwell, with her coat in hand, teamed up with a stranger clutching a blanket in a bid to capture the marsupial. A concrete highway divider had blocked the koala's crossing.
"The koala was absolutely not damaged in any way," Tugwell said. "It was very active, but very calm."
This photo released by Nadia Tugwell shows a koala inside her car in Adelaide, Australia, on Monday. Photo / AP
Once the koala was in her trunk, Tugwell drove to a petrol station to turn the animal over to wildlife rescuers. In the interim, the koala was able to climb from the trunk into her SUV's cabin.
"It decided to come to the front toward me, so I said, 'Okay, you stay here. I'll get out,'" she said.
"It started sitting for a while on the steering wheel: (as if ) saying: 'let's go for a drive,' and that's when I started taking photos," she added.
This photo released by Nadia Tugwell, shows a koala inside a soft cage after being picked up by Adelaide Koala Rescue before being transported to the Adelaide Hills in Adelaide on Monday. Photo / AP
Tugwell said she had learned from past experience how to calm koalas by covering their eyes. She lives near a eucalyptus forest outside Adelaide and has twice called animal handlers to rescue koalas injured in fights with other koalas.
