Thelife- An Australian family came home on Wednesday to find a koala calmly sitting on their Christmas tree.
- The juvenile koala, which they named Daphne, was tangled up in the lights and kept trying to eat the leaves — until she realized they were plastic.
- Adelaide and Hills Koala Rescue initially thought it was a prank when Amanda McCormick called to report the koala on her tree.
- Volunteers from the organization helped detangle the koala and released it by a tree near the family's home.
The drunk squirrel may have been our Thanksgiving hero, but this koala has already stolen our hearts for Christmas.
An Australian family couldn't believe their eyes when they came home on Wednesday to find a koala calmly perched on their Christmas tree.
@mcqueen1004 gotta love coming home and finding a koala in your christmas tree.. wtf ##australia ##koala
♬ stayin alive x poouussyy talk - DJ Lilli
Taylah McCormick, 16, knew something was amiss the minute she walked through the front door of her home in Adelaide when the family dog made a beeline for the living room.
"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 juvenile koala, which McCormick named Daphne, was tangled up in the lights of the tree and kept trying to eat the leaves - until she realized they were plastic.
McCormick had left the front door open for her dog while the 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."
But Amanda wasn't the only person who initially thought the koala was a prank. When she called up Adelaide and Hills Koala Rescue, the hotline operator thought she was joking.
The organization later shared photos of Daphne on its Facebook page and said the koala had been "desperate to get in the Christmas spirit."
Dee Hearne-Hellon, cofounder of the rescue group, told The Guardian that Daphne - a female believed to be around three or four years old - was 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."The organization told 9News that it has rescued koalas from children's strollers, brooms, toy cars, bicycles, and even chicken coops. But the Christmas tree was a first.
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.
The teen later shared a clip of volunteers releasing Daphne near the family's home after detangling the koala from the plastic leaves.
@mcqueen1004 Reply to @3mbrace we had to let daphne go ##australia ##koala
♬ original sound - McQueen
While Daphne may no longer be the star of their Christmas tree, the McCormicks still plan to look out for her. And they'll never forget how she made their holiday one to remember.
Amanda McCormick and Adelaide and Hills Koala Rescue did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
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