Family in Adelaide discover hilarious holiday surprise
An Aussie family couldn’t believe their eyes when they spotted a koala perched on their Christmas tree.
16-year-old Taylah McCormick took to TikTok to share the strange scene which took place in her home in Adelaide.
"The dog went straight to the Christmas tree and was sniffing around, and mom thought that was a bit weird," McCormick told The Guardian's Matilda Boseley. "There was baubles all over the floor, and she looked up and there was a koala in the tree."
The young koala, which McCormick named Daphne, kept trying the eat the leaves - until she realised they were plastic.
McCormick had left the front door open for her dog while her family was out for the afternoon.
Her mother, Amanda McCormick, believes that Daphne could have been in the house for at least three hours.
"I thought, 'Is this a joke?' I thought one of my kids may have put a soft toy in there, but no, it was a live one," Amanda told The Guardian. "We've had them in our trees before but not inside on our Christmas tree. It must have crawled in when the doors were open."
Amanda wasn’t the only one who couldn’t believe what she was seeing, as when she called up Adelaide and Hills Koala Rescue, the hotline operator thought she was joking.
The organisation later shared photos of Daphne on its Facebook page and said the koala had been "desperate to get in the Christmas spirit."
Speaking to The Guardian, Dee Hearne-Hellon, cofounder of the rescue group said that Daphne was most likely intrigued by the tree.
"It's not actually that hot, so they wouldn't be seeking shade, particularly at the moment," she said. "They are curious, and they are in the suburbs, and if they see something that they want to have a look at, they'll just drop in and have a look."
McCormick posted a TikTok video of Daphne on the family's Christmas tree, which has received nearly 400,000 views at the time of writing.