Australian Army soldiers give up their rest time to feed koalas displaced by fires

Australia continues to suffer from catastrophic bushfires spreading across millions of acres. The fires have caused widespread devastation: thousands of homes have been destroyed and the animal populations have been ravaged.

But if there’s a silver lining to look for in all this chaos, it’s the amount of people stepping up to help, from the brave firefighters risking their lives to combat the flames to the many volunteers helping injured and displaced animals.

Now some photos of the Australian Army are warming hearts, showing soldiers feeding koalas on their own downtime.

The photos show the uniformed men and women of the 16 Regiment Emergency Support Force cradling some cozy koalas, displaced when their homes were hit by the fires, and bottle feeding them at Cleland Wildlife Park.

It’s a nice thing to do, make even more extraordinary by the fact that they were there on their own rest time—they were in the area to combat the fires in the Adelaide Hills.

The 9th Brigade posted the photos and called their service “a great morale boost for our hard working team in the Adelaide Hills.”

The soldiers also built climbing mounts for the koalas.

They aren’t the only members of the Australian Army tasked with helping out the koalas. Soldiers have been deployed to Kangaroo Island to help the injured koalas recover.

Our vets are one of the many specialist reservists who have been deployed as part of the ADF Reserve Call Out. Army…

Posted by Australian Army on Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Our vets are one of the many specialist reservists who have been deployed as part of the ADF Reserve Call Out. Army…

Posted by Australian Army on Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Thank you to these men and women for going above and beyond to help these poor koalas! We are praying for Australia to recover from the fires. Share this heartwarming story!