Clyde and Dave, the two juvenile koalas, are orphans that were raised by a wildlife carer. Usually, hand-raised koalas are released into the wild at 2-3kg and go off to fend for themselves. However, for reasons best known to the carer, these two boys were kept at home for a bit too long, and came into the koala hospital at 5kg, needing to be dehumanised and taught how to be koalas. I helped set up their enclosure and release them into it. Both boys climbed straight away, one of them starting to climb the tree, and the other climbing onto the shade structure roof. This was the highest either koala had ever climbed. I started filming at this point.
Noel came into the hospital to be checked for chlamydia - a very common disease in koalas that has very nasty results, often referred to as "wet bottom" disease. Noel, however, was a very healthy boy. I assisted when Cheyne anesthetised him to ultrasound him and take blood. When his relsuts came back negative, I got to go on the release trip. When a koala is released, they are taken to the bottom of a suitable tree in a sack and released to climb the tree, but most of the time the koala runs away from the tree you are trying to release it into and choses its own tree. This is exactly what Noel did.
6 comments:
Koalas look funny when they run on ground!
Given your experience in this line of work, what similarities and differences are you finding between working with devils and koalas?
Koalas are beautiful. Thanks for the video of Barry. I found the koala I sent you the photo of the other day cause the horses wouldn't come over for their treats. Since there isnt much that Twist is afraid of I instantly started looking around for a koala. For some reason she believes that koalas eat horses and that she needed to keep herself and Otis a good 80m away.
There are a lot of similarities in the way that the general caring for the animals is done. Especially because these are koalas that have to be kept wild so they can be released, so it is much more similar to how we work with our devils. The biggest differences are that preparing leaf for the koalas is much more pleasant than preparing meat for the devils, and the koalas aren't as naturally aggressive towards humans as devils, but also don't seem as scared of people as the devils. Although, the koalas can scratch and/or bite if they want - I've seen a koala bite and its just as bad as a devil bite. One thing I've found quite interesting is that even the permanent residents here don't seem to get bored the way that our devils do and don't get very much in the way of enrichment. Even though devils aren't an especially intelligent predator and mostly scavenge, they still count as a predator, and obviously need more distracting and keeping occupied than their herbivorous friends.
Tori, I like the idea of horse-eating koalas, but I'm not sure how Twistie thinks they would manage it. Maybe its the weird growling vocalisation that koalas make that has her spooked :)
I dont know the first koala I saw with her was when I just got her as a 4 year old and it ran across the road infront of us then went up a tree. So I can understand wierdly running thing that suddenly went above her head. THe seconds was at a show and was on the otherside of a large creek up a trees and took us ages to find what is was she was going mental about. THat koala didnt even move. And most of the others have been the same just sleeping up trees. She must be able to smell them.
Clyde's Diary: Today I met a tree!
Dave's Diary: It turns out that today was a bad day to discover you're scared of heights!
Noel's Diary: They think I'm nuts - but I bet they wouldn't trust a real estate agent if he stuffed them in a sack to take them house hunting...
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