Ellenborough Lewis, the Koala bear that captured the world's attention after being rescued from an Australian bushfire, has died.
CNN reports that the hospital where the marsupial was being treated, released a statement on Facebook, saying that a decision to euthanise the Koala had been made after it became apparent that its injuries would not improve.
"Today we made the decision to put Ellenborough Lewis to sleep. We placed him under general anaesthesia this morning to assess his burns injuries and change the bandages. We recently posted that "burns injuries can get worse before they get better". In Ellenborough Lewis's case, the burns did get worse, and unfortunately would not have gotten better. The Koala Hospital's number one goal is animal welfare, so it was on those grounds that this decision was made. We thank you for your ongoing support," the statement read in full.
A video showing Toni Doherty rescuing the injured animal went viral and brought home to social media users the horrors of wildfires.
She used her shirt to cover it.
Doherty was seen dousing the Koala bear with water to cool it.
She told members of the press that she had been driving when she saw the animal and jumped out to offer help.
"I didn't realise they could cry out. It was just so heart-rending and I knew I needed to get him out of there as quickly as possible," Ms Doherty told Nine News according to the BBC.