Koala

Notes:

My first wild koala spotting since 2006! I was at my brother-in-law's place in the northern suburbs of Brisbane this morning when we saw this koala sitting in an umbrella palm on a neighbouring property (quite some distance away, so the photos are pretty poor quality). There are not many koalas left on the Sunshine Coast where I live; however, every time we go to the nearby Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital to have our reptiles checked out, they have a full house of sick and injured koalas. The Australian Koala Foundation estimates that as a result of the loss of their habitat, around 4,000 koalas are killed each year by dogs and cars alone. 80% of koala habitat has already disappeared. Although koalas themselves are protected by law, around eighty percent of any remaining habitat occurs on privately owned land (such as this koala's home range) and almost none of that is protected by legislation. Visit www.savethekoala.com or www.koaladiaries.com.au to find out more about the bid to save our koalas.