Offbeat: A famous koala dies. OK, pretty much the only famous one.
- Say it ain’t so, Sam! Sam the koala became famous earlier this year after being offered a water bottle in the midst of the Australian brushfires. A photographer took a shot of it and it ended up plastered in papers around the world. Unfortunately, Sam had the same problem that many koalas have in the part of Australia he lived: Chlamydia. The disease ravaged the population of Victoria, Australia’s koalas, and it got Sam, too. Hopefully koala heaven is full of firefighters and full of water bottles. source