The gorgeous koala on our member pages is a joey named Bart. Cared for by Vanda Grabowski of the Koala Action Pine Rivers group, his is a story that mirrors the situation faced by urban koalas today. Here is Bart's story, by Vanda:
Bart and his mother were found on the ground at Weyba Park in Noosa Heads and koala rescuers transferred them to the Australian Wildlife Hospital in Beerwah. Both mother and joey were in extremely poor condition. After a thorough medical examination it was determined that Bart’s mother was suffering from lymphoma and leukaemia. She was put to sleep and Bart came into my care on 22 August 2006.
I was lucky enough to have the privilege of raising this feisty 800-gram joey (named after Bart Simpson) to sub adulthood. At that time I was raising another female koala joey named Anna. Bart joined her in my “koala guestroom”. It is better to raise koala joeys with others of their kind so they can bond with each other.
Bart was small for his age and undernourished as a consequence of his mother’s illness. However, he had “attitude” and was a plucky, curious young fellow who began exploring his new home immediately. Bart had lost his sucking reflex and after many weeks of trying to get him to drink enough milk from a bottle to build him up I resorted to syringe feeding Infasoy paste. This seemed more to his liking and he began to put on weight.
Bart decided Anna would be his “surrogate mother” and clambered or jumped onto her back at every opportunity. Anna wasn’t that much bigger than Bart and found carrying a youngster on her back problematic to say the least. In an attempt to resolve that issue I attached several furry stuffed toys onto each of their indoor koala trees so each could have something to cuddle.
However, that was not enough for this young lad who continued trying to get onto Anna’s back. Anna worked out that if she crawled under the chest in their room she could knock him off her back. She would then hide. In the early hours of the morning Bart’s grief stricken calls would drag me out of bed to attend to his needs. Lots of cuddles were required to calm him down. Anna would do this as often as Bart attempted to ride on her back. People often tell me koalas are stupid but I know better.
In time they both adjusted to each other and things settled down. At around 2.5 kilos I began weaning him off the paste and Bart went downstairs with Anna into an outdoor enclosure. It was a pleasure to see him tearing into the fresh leaf bought to him daily by his loving foster mother.
At 3.5 kilos Bart went into the Kindergarten Rainforest Enclosure at the Australian Wildlife Hospital. It is here that the bonds between human foster mothers and their charges are severed. Koala joeys learn to mix with other koalas and deal with the vagaries of sun, wind and rain. I then began the process of searching for an appropriate location in which to release Bart in the not too distant future.
Queensland regulations require that koalas be returned from whence they came. In many cases, this isn’t a good idea. Bart came from the suburbs of Noosa and I felt that to put him back into that environment would guarantee his demise, sooner rather than later. Hand raised joeys do not acquire the same instincts that a joey develops growing up with its natural mother.
I believe the best option for hand-raised joeys is to release them into bushland that won’t be cleared for development and where there is little to no road traffic and minimal chances of coming across dogs.
Against my better judgement, Bart was released into the Noosa Springs Country Club on Links Drive in Noosa Heads on 13 March 2007. It bothered me that we had to drive around for two hours before finding a place with healthy koala food trees and no other koalas in sight. My fears stemmed from the lack of sufficient habitat at this site to support an existing koala population let alone an extra animal. In addition the golf course is surrounded by suburbia and many of the houses had dogs.
Sub adult males face a difficult time finding a territory of their own. There is a lot of competition for food and access to mates. Having worked with koalas from 1993 to-date, I knew the future did not bode well for my boy.
It was with the deepest sorrow and regret that I learned Bart’s body had been found on the side of Murdering Creek Road, Weyba Downs on 24th September 2007. An autopsy revealed that my perfect, gentle, precious boy had received multiple dog bites to his side and thighs – his liver was ruptured and his abdomen was full of blood. It was clear from the autopsy that it was not wild dogs or dingoes in search of food that had attacked Bart; rather well fed, unrestrained domestic pets had killed him. All the love, care and nurturing I provided came to nothing.
Why do I rescue and care for sick, injured and orphaned koalas? I do it, not only because I am desperately in love with this species, but to provide them with the opportunity to live a full and natural life in the bush. Experience has taught me people appear hell bent on destroying and fragmenting Australia’s remaining bushland habitats. Not only do people cut down the trees upon which koalas depend, we drive vehicles that kill and maim koalas as well as other wildlife. Many people who have dogs on their property are not willing to act responsibly and make sure that their pets are inside or restrained at night when koalas are on the move.
The question remains as to whether there is a future for koalas within the urban areas of SEQ? If we want the answer to be yes, we must all make a commitment to retain remaining bushland, rehabilitate secondary habitat to increase its carrying capacity and replant koala food trees as well as other natives in parks, reserves and open spaces. Motorists need to reduce their speed when driving on roads that pass through bushland, across parks or reserves and every animal owner should restrain domestic animals, particularly at night.
If we want koalas and other native wildlife to survive it is up to us.
Vanda Grabowski
Koala Action Pine Rivers Inc
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