The moment an elderly man gave a koala a stern warning after he bundled the animal out of harm’s way on a busy road in Queensland has gone viral, with the rescuer since revealing just what he said to the iconic critter.
The widely-shared footage shows Terry, 82, picking the koala up from a road on Beaudesert-Beenleigh Rd, north-west of the Gold Coast.
A voice in the video can be heard saying “aw” as Terry carefully carries the creature to the roadside, before he releases the koala and it crawls towards the bush.
Terry is then seen nudging the back of the koala with his foot before it turns around and faces the man – who then points his finger at the animal as if to tell it off.
The pedestrian has since spoken about the heart-warming encounter, telling 7News he told the koala “not to scratch because I’m trying to help him”.
“And the little mongrel just kept scratching. But he was only protecting himself ,” Terry said.
“If you get hold of the bear quick enough and hold him the right way, they realise — especially when you start moving off the road — that they’re getting out of danger.”
The 82-year-old has since given the koala the nickname Ted, which he said he had visited twice a day since lifting it to safety.
“I had to look up and I couldn’t see him. All of a sudden he moved — I spotted him,” Terry told 7News.
“Yeah, he knew I was back.”
Terry has been labelled a “true Aussie” in the wake of the video going viral.
“Not all heroes wear capes,” one person commented on a Facebook post sharing the clip.
“And I bet that koala understood every word lol,” another person said.
“Haha a true Aussie,” a fellow Facebook user commented.