but a couple returned home to Australia on Wednesday and were shocked to find one in their bedroom.
“I was scared, happy and excited all at the same time,” Fran Dias Rufino from Adelaide, South Australia, told CNN.
Rufino, who moved to Australia from Brazil, posted the unexpected encounter on Instagram, saying she was speechless when she saw the marsupial inside her home.
“I was so nervous I forgot my English,” she wrote in an Instagram post, with the remark, “Only in Australia.”
The video showed the koala sitting on the floor next to their bed, looking at Rufino and her husband, Brunno, before climbing onto a bedside table. He then jumped on the bed, according to the footage Rufino shared with CNN.
“I was nervous and worried about how we were going to get it out,” she said.
Koalas, which are found mainly on the east and south-east coasts of Australia, are at risk of extinction in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory, mainly due to disease, drought, fires and deforestation.
In South Australia, where the Rufinos live, koala numbers are stable, and in some areas, populations are healthy.
The koala left the bedroom after Brunno used a sweater to try to drive it out.
The video showed the koala wandering around the house, apparently looking for a way out, as Rufino screamed frantically in the background. Koalas rarely attack humans and are most often seen in the treetops, lazily munching on eucalyptus leaves.
