The moment an Australian cyclist gave an extremely thirsty koala water has gone viral.
Anna Heusler, from South Australia, posted a video on Instagram of a koala climbing up her bike while she gave the marsupial water.
Heusler said she was cycling in a peloton from Norton Summit Road back towards Adelaide when they rounded a bend and spotted a koala sitting in the middle of the road.
She told 7News she often observes koalas while cycling but nothing similar to this has happened to her before.
"I stopped on my bike and he walked right up to me, quite quickly for a koala, and as I was giving him a drink from all our water bottles, he actually climbed up onto my bike."
The koala was luckily unharmed but was suffering severe thirst in a heatwave of 40C.
After the group gave the koala a drink, they proceeded to return the marsupial to its habitat.
Heusler said the encounter was the best thing to happen to her on a ride.
Although the koala was not in direct contact with the region's bushfires, many marsupials have lost a vast portion of their habitat.
In the Port Macquarie colony in New South Wales, Koala Conservation Australia president Sue Ashton believes out of 600 koalas, as many as 350 are dead in the Lake Innes Nature Reserve.
But the world has been noticing the plight of Australians and its wildlife, both suffering in the heat of the country's bushfires.
Port Macquarie Koala Hospital clinical director Cheyne Flanagan said its GoFundMe page has got the biggest input of funds in Australian history.
"It's gone over $2 million."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also announced his Government will payout at least four weeks of leave for volunteer firefighters who've given up their time to fight the blazes.
