A kindly Irish man who stopped traffic to assist a koala cross a busy Australian highway has been praised for this sweet gesture.
Will Thornton went viral this week after being filmed conducting a heroic roadside operation.
Mr Thornton is seen barefoot stopping traffic on a motorway in Burleigh Heads because the little ruffian crawled across the infamous busy Gold Coast Highway yesterday.
“Our Irish son-in-law escorts a koala across the Gold Coast Hwy at Burleigh Heads this morning,” Katrina Boyle, who posted a video on Facebookhe wrote.
said the 39-year-old Courier noticed the creature while drinking coffee on his balcony.
“Me and my wife were drinking coffee on the balcony and we spotted a koala coming out of the tree below us and thought it was pretty cool,” said Mr Thornton.
“He began heading towards the Gold Coast Highway, I assumed that will be bad so I rushed to assist him.
“He was determined to cross the road.
“He just kept going, so I needed to attempt to stop the traffic. I actually didn’t know what the hell I used to be doing.
“I attempted to make the cars appear to be.”
![A man helps a koala.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/koala-red-3.jpg?w=1024)
Mr Thornton said road users “quite understood” his demands after they saw the animal he was attempting to help.
“Within the video you’ll be able to see a cyclist who was laughing at me, people were giving me weird thumbs,” said Good Samaritan.
His act has now been viewed thousands and thousands of times online and the general public overwhelmingly praises the person for his good work.
“A person deserves a beer – bravo, mate,” wrote one.
“Good job, old buddy. It is so refreshing to see someone helping the wildlife…especially my favorite koala!” wrote one other.
![The road through the koala.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/koala-red-2.jpg?w=1024)
Conservationists said the video should function a reminder that suitable koala habitats are shrinking.
“South East Queensland is an area that has been greatly affected by the cleanup, mainly in terms of development and transport,” Dave Copeman of the Queensland Conservation Council told The Guardian.
“We’re at a point where we just cannot proceed the cleanup anymore – we’re destroying koala habitat,” he said.
“The truly disturbing reality is that koalas face extinction in the wild if we don’t change the present trajectory. The science is evident.”
The koala’s breeding season often runs from September to February, which implies the sleepy marsupial may develop into more energetic and mobile in the spring and summer.