Lucky Koala Survives 50-Mile-Long Roadtrip

Koalas may be cute and cuddly looking, but they are apparently tough as nails. On Friday, one koala proved his resilience when he was able to hang on to the back of a car's grill - unbeknownst to its passengers - for 50 miles and survive.

At a service station in Gympie, Australia, a taxi driver and four passengers were shocked to find an understandably shaken up-looking koala clinging for dear life to the back of the car. The vehicle had sped down the Bruce Highway last Friday for 50 miles before finding the poor animal.

The koala, dubbed Timberwolf, was likely struck by the car, and amazingly managed to hang on despite the harrowing trauma, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The worst of his injuries was just a few scratches.

"It is absolutely amazing that he has such minor injuries and he survived," vet Claude Lacasse, from the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital where the koala was later taken in for treatment, told the Herald.

"It is a truly remarkable story. He is a very lucky koala."

And Timberwolf, a four-year-old male, is not just lucky in the fact that he survived this terrifying journey. After being brought in to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, staff at the hospital found that the koala tested positive for chlamydia.

Throughout Australia, koalas are under threat from the disease, which is spread both sexually and from mother to offspring and can result in infertility, blindness, and even death. Wildlife authorities call it an epidemic, with as many as 90 percent of koalas in some regions having been infected, according to The Dodo.

Timberwolf will spend another month in the hospital receiving antibiotic treatment before he is given a clean bill of health and can return back to the wild.

Though these animals are often referred to as koala "bears," they are actually marsupials, and relatives of Australia's other signature animal, the kangaroo. They live in eastern Australia, where the eucalyptus trees they feed off of are plentiful, according to National Geographic. And when they aren't gnawing on their favorite plant, they are sleeping during the day, sometimes up to 18 hours.