A koala that travelled 10km wedged into the grille of a car that struck it at Bridgewater, 20km south of Adelaide, South Australia, on Wednesday survived with little more than a few grazes and a bad temper.

Wildlife carer Anne Bigham, who monitors the Fauna Rescue of South Australia hotline with her husband, Don, said the koala, called “Bear Grills” by the driver who hit him, was “very good, very healthy, very cranky” on Thursday.

“My hand is here dripping with blood to prove it,” Bigham told Guardian Australia as the koala hissed in the background.

Bigham said it was a “miracle” the 11kg marsupial had survived. “It really is a miracle, isn’t it, that he has got hooked up in the car and driven 10 or 12km, then got himself down again with only a few scratches,” she said.

The driver of the car, Loren Davis, told the ABC that she hit the koala while travelling a 100km/h on the South Eastern freeway, about 10km from her home in Mount Barker. She had been banked in by other cars and was unable to avoid the animal.



“I drove home, feeling upset that I’d killed a koala,” she said. “Once I got home and pulled into the garage I turned on the light to see the damage.

“I turned around, saw a koala and just screamed.”

The koala appeared stuck in the car, but by the time Don Bigham arrived about 40 minutes later the koala had climbed out and was perched on some gym equipment in the garage.

He was taken to the vet and x-rayed, and made a second trip to the vet on Thursday morning for a final check. He is due to be released back to the Mount Barker area on Friday.

He’s now sporting a new accessory – a yellow ear tag – which will let any wildlife carers or vets he encounters in future know his medical history and be able to track his weight and range.

Anne Bigham said it was the fourth time they had seen a koala stuck inside a car after a road accident, and the second where the koala survived.

“One got flipped up into a car engine, and that one was eventually got out and was fine – it was another miracle,” she said.

The Bighams have eight koalas at their home at the moment – four adults that are recovering from injury, including Bear Grylls, and four young koalas being raised to maturity before being released.

They field up to 50 calls a day on the koala hotline over summer, mostly for koalas found sitting on the ground “looking a bit sad and sorry”, which Anne said was usually a sign of renal failure.