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Dog Saves Baby Koala in Australia

A mother Koala and her joey. (Illustration - Shutterstock)
A mother Koala and her joey. (Illustration - Shutterstock)
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Dog Saves Baby Koala in Australia

A mother Koala and her joey. (Illustration - Shutterstock)
A mother Koala and her joey. (Illustration - Shutterstock)

Kerry McKinnon lives in Australia with her dog, Asha, and their life was never boring. One morning her husband called her to see how their Golden Retriever was sitting outside with a baby koala perched atop her back.

Asha is being hailed a hero for her role in saving a baby koala.

The Animal Forum website quoted the owner Kerry as saying: "It was quite early in the morning, and my husband yelled out to me to come have a look at something. I didn't know what he was talking about at first but then I saw this tiny koala snuggled on top of Asha. She kept looking back at the koala but she wasn't trying to get him off her or anything."

"She was happy to let him snuggle into her."

She added: "I think the baby koala fell out of his mum's pouch and didn't know what to do. He would have died out there if left alone all night."

"The poor thing could have been taken by a fox or something," she added.

The tiny koala was checked out by a vet, and a local carer is watching over the baby until it becomes old enough to be released back into the wild.

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Danish Archaeologists Unearth 50 Viking Skeletons

Massacred 10th century Vikings found in a mass grave at St John’s College, Oxford. Photograph: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/PA
Massacred 10th century Vikings found in a mass grave at St John’s College, Oxford. Photograph: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/PA
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Danish Archaeologists Unearth 50 Viking Skeletons

Massacred 10th century Vikings found in a mass grave at St John’s College, Oxford. Photograph: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/PA
Massacred 10th century Vikings found in a mass grave at St John’s College, Oxford. Photograph: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/PA

The excavation of a large Viking-era burial site in Denmark has unearthed 50 unusually well-preserved skeletons that archaeologists expect will help shed light on the lives of the Nordic people best known for their seafaring exploits in the Middle Ages.

The skeletons, discovered near Denmark's third-largest city Odense, were kept intact by high water levels and favorable soil conditions that prevented them from decomposing, according to Michael Borre Lundoe, the excavation leader from Museum Odense, Reuters reported.

"Normally when we excavate Viking graves, we'd be lucky if there were two teeth left in the grave besides the grave goods. But here we have the skeletons fully preserved," said Lundoe.

"The skeletons are so amazing. They are so well preserved. There are five fingers, five toes. And that opens up a whole new set of possibilities for discoveries," he said.

Rare artifacts such as knives, glass pearls and brooches dated between year 850 to 970 were also found at the excavation, which began six months ago.

Lundoe said the grave gifts indicate most of the people were part of a small community of farmers, although a woman of higher status was buried with a silver-ornamented knife and a piece of glass which was rare in the Viking Age.

Archaeologists took soil samples to search for pollen to determine which season the person was buried in and what textiles they wore.

An x-ray of a soil block from the site revealed an oval brooch, an iconic Viking Age jewelry piece associated with women's garments, covered with wood and human remains.

On the back of another brooch with period-specific ornaments, mineralized woven textile fragments provided evidence of the type of dress worn in the Viking Age, the archaeologists said.

Most of the skeletons have been removed from the graves and packed in cardboard boxes at the museum to dry out before the examination and final cleaning.