Orphaned koala runs head-first into tree

Sometimes you can't see the woods for the trees, but an orphaned koala failed to notice either when he bounded head-first into a tree.

Koala joey Mason was playing with his human foster mother in a New South Wales yard when he turned and ran straight into a tree trunk, Port Stephens Koalas said on Facebook.

The embarrassing mishap was caught on camera, and has since been viewed more than 47,000 times in the past two days.

In the footage, Mason can be seen crashing into the tree and then slowly falling backwards. He then appears to look back at his human carers in shock, before bounding further away.

"Anyone would think he'd never seen a tree before, oh Mason what a plonker," Port Stephens captioned the video.

"Here he is play fighting with mom in readiness for those girls he'll be chasing in the wild and boy will they beat him up."

Hundreds of people from around the world have left comments on the video, remarking on Mason's cute appearance and poor coordination.