Koala stole $3,800 from Australian Zoo (2 photos)

That's how much the plants that the marsupial ate cost.





For several weeks, the owner of a plant nursery in New South Wales was racking his brains over how to identify the elusive thief, which regularly devours its seedlings.

At first Humphrey Herrington thought they were goats, which ran away from some farmer. Or perhaps a pesky possum.

But one morning Herrington came to work and was surprised found there a sleepy and distraught male koala among the tattered young eucalyptus trees. The previous night he had eaten so much that he could not move and decided to spend the night at the crime scene.

“Judging by his appearance, he ate very well. He looked very pleased with himself,” Herrington said in an interview BBC.



Now the nursery staff are building around their seedlings a fence impenetrable to koalas. In particular, for one particular marsupial, who was nicknamed Claude, whose nocturnal adventures cost company at A$6,000 ($3,800).

Ironically, the plants that Claude ate were grown to expand the habitat of koalas in the region - this type of marsupial is under threat of extinction.