Koala

One time I visited the Brisbane Koala bushland to look at koalas. I was hoping to see at least one. I spent about an hour-and-a-half wandering around the park looking up and looking down, skipping the hop and horsing around. Mostly I scared off the kangaroos whilst following the horse trails and meandering along creeks and pathways that led to nowhere. In all I must have covered at least 10 kilometres in a couple of hours, before I gave up the search.

I was a tad disappointed not to see a koala, but that’s the way it goes. Yet, hoping against hope, I hang around the park entrance until the day yielded to the night. And like the daylight had gone I had to concede that any hope of spotting a koala had gone.

I trudged wearily to my car and was getting in as I glanced back once more toward the bushland. All was not lost, there it was looking right at me – a koala! I took my camera out and rushed to it and clicked away. If not for this one sighting I could have sworn there was more koalas in the Philippines than in all of the Brisbane Koala Bushland!

I mean it was only a picture of a koala - on a sign at the park entrance – but in my book, one koala beats nada.

Photo from Brisbane Koala Bushlands visitor centre in Alperton Rd, Burbank.

Koalas are marsupials, native to and a popular symbol of the unique wildlife of Australia.

In Queensland, the greatest concentration of koalas is in the southeast and eastern half of the state.

Koalas range over open forest and woodland communities but their habitat is defined by a select group of food trees that favour more fertile soils and grow near waterways.

They live high up in eucalyptus trees, perched between the forks of the branches. To enable them to wedge comfortably in tree forks for long periods of time, koalas have developed particularly hard bottoms.

Can you spot the koala above and below?

The koala is one of the easily recognised of all Australian animals, however, in the wild a koala can be difficult to see from the ground.

The photos shown here took a few years to collect.

This fair-sized koala was spotted near the Goombi-Fairymeadows Road, Greenswamp.

It is often unnoticed sitting up high in the canopy wedged asleep in its favourite fork.

Koalas are quite picky eaters, feeding on a small variety of tree leaves (less than 50 of over 700 eucalypt and a few other related species).

Bunyaville forest park.

Each day they consume around 500 grams of leaves which can contain up to 50% water. 

Koalas get enough moisture from eucalyptus leaves but they do need water during a drought or on extremely hot days.

Eucalyptus leaves are so low in nutrients and requires a lot of energy to break down, hence koalas sleep up to 20 hours a day.

Koalas have poor vision and rely heavily on their other senses. 

They have an acute sense of smell which helps them find their favourite food trees. 

They also have excellent hearing. This helps them detect other koalas, predators and koala watchers.

Lake Wivenhoe

They are arboreal (tree dwelling) mammals and have strong arms and legs and sharp claws suitable for climbing trees. 

Lake Wivenhoe

They do move between trees and sometimes have to climb down to the ground.

Koalas are nocturnal and are mostly active between dusk and dawn. However, they also move about in the daylight hours.

Over the past 200 years, individual koala populations have declined very dramatically.

Relentless urbanization and the increase in human settlement and agriculture have caused their forest habitat to be cleared and koala woodlands totally lost.

This deliberate large-scale deforestation and widespread tree clearing in the name of progress and human development has come at the cost among others, of the koala. 

Local extinctions have gone from occurring in small pockets to statewide and national extents. 

With no end in sight to a rapidly growing human population, koalas have gone from vulnerable to a protected species. Very soon they’ll be endangered.

The size, colour and shape of koalas differs slightly across eastern Australia. Koalas in Queensland are smaller, lighter in colour and have less fur than those in other states. Queensland's adult female koalas on average weigh between 5 and 6kg and adult males weigh between 6 and 8kg, compared to Victoria’s adult female koalas with an average weight of 8.5kg and adult males 12kg.`

Adult female koalas have a backward facing pouch for their young. This type of pouch protects their young from injury while moving around from tree to tree. A baby koala is called a joey and it lives in its mother’s pouch for six months and then remains with her for another six months usually riding on her back. .

On average, koalas live for 10 to 15 years of age in the wild. Although females can continue to breed into their 'teens' and may live as long as 18 years, males are thought to have a slightly shorter lifespan.

Did you know?

Koalas have similar fingerprints to humans.

Koalas are solitary animals living within a network of overlapping home ranges anywhere from as small as 1km to over 100km, depending on the density of the population and the abundance of suitable food trees, or the presence of predators.

Mount Barney National Park

In the wild, koalas sometimes fall prey to natural predators such as a goanna.

I found this fair-sized prey (already dead) and its predator dining on its entrails, in the wilderness foothills of Mt Barney.