Did you know koalas have been around for tens of millions of years, and that they're bigger now and more abundant than any other time in their history? Neither did I :
Scientists have gained a glimpse into how the koala, one of the nation's most loved creatures, may have acted tens of millions of years ago.
....perhaps the most important finding to come out of the research is that never in their history have koalas had a period when they were so abundant as they are now.
The fossil remains of the extinct koalas....were about a quarter to a third smaller than today's koalas....
....24 million years ago, koalas and their close relatives, wombats, had long diverged on their evolutionary tree. Koalas were already creatures living in the forest canopy and specialising in eating leaves.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the ancient koalas and the modern variety is that it is clear from the fossil jaws and teeth that whatever the extinct creatures were eating it was nowhere near as tough as the leaves from present day gum trees.
The dominance of eucalypts in Australian forests is a relatively new thing - the result of the drying of the continent following a succession of ice ages. Koala teeth reflect this rarity of eucalyptus in ancient Australian forests.
Sam became the most famous koala in the world when firefighter David Tree stopped to give him a drink amid the devastation of the Victoria fires.
The image provided a much-needed picture of hope in a week filled with news of despair. Yesterday Sam was recovering in Mountain Ash Wildlife Shelter.
Carer Jenny Shaw said she suffered burns on her paws and was in a lot of pain, but was on the road to recovery.
She was put on an IV drip and is on antibiotics and pain relief treatment.
"She is lovely - very docile - and she has already got an admirer. A male koala keeps putting his arms around her," Ms Shaw said.
"She will need regular attention and it will be a long road to recovery, but she should be able to be released back into the wild in about five months."
Mr Tree said he was surprised by the reaction to the photograph, which was snapped by a fellow CFA volunteer on a mobile phone.
He said he was in the middle of backburning at Mirboo North when he saw the stricken koala.
"I could see she had sore feet and was in trouble, so I pulled over the fire truck. She just plonked herself down, as if to say 'I'm beat'," he said.
"I offered her a drink and she drank three bottles.
"The most amazing part was when she grabbed my hand. I will never forget that."
UPDATE : While the human toll of the Victorian bushfires is now likely to reach 300, with more than 80 remaining missing today, the animal toll has also been revised up. Way, way up :
More than a million native animals may have perished in Victoria's fire inferno, a wildlife expert says.
Ms Chappell is among those working to rescue the animals and says the extent of the devastation may never be known.
"It (the animal death toll) will be in the hundreds of thousands, possibly millions," Ms Chappell said.
"We are not just talking the animals we are familiar with, there are gliders and all sorts of possums, antechinus (a mouse-like marsupial), bandicoots, birds - there is so much wildlife."
It is feared endangered populations of gliders, owls and lizards may be among the dead.
For those that have survived, the recovery process will be long and slow.
"They have lost their homes too and they are not going to be rebuilt in a year or two years, it is a much longer-term picture," Ms Chappell said.
Colleen Wood from the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter that is caring for Sam and Bob said both koalas were doing well while other animals like possums, kangaroos, and wallabies were also starting to emerge from the debris.
She said Sam had suffered second degree burns to her paws and would take seven to eight months to recover while Bob had three burned paws with third degree burns and should be well enough to return to the bush in about four months.
"They keep putting their arms around each other and giving each other hugs. They really have made friends and it is quite beautiful to see after all this. It's been horrific," said Wood.
"Sam is probably aged between two to four going by her teeth and Bob is about four so they have a muchness with each other."
Beautiful.
.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
They Don't Make A Bad Soup, But The Flesh Is Quite Gummy
These photos have hit just about everyone's e-mail box, and the abandoned baby koala, who climbed into a bucket of water to escape Victoria's extreme heat, is so goddamned cute you could almost cry.
An extraordinary sequence of photos, here, details an unwelcome intrusion into the usually mellow, leaf munching, 20 hour napping, day of a koala bear, in South Australia's Happy Valley. You Will Believe That A Koala Bear Can Fly...
UPDATE : My mistake. The 14 metre tall Giant Koala isn't made from concrete, it's composed of cold cast bronze and fibreglass. You can buy it for only $220,000. It would look magnificent in any backyard, looming menacingly over the neighbourhood.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Rescued Rare White Koala Had To Be Treated In Secret Due To Blackmarket Theft Threat
They called him 'Mick'. He's not an albino koala, which are, apparently, quite common. He was instead an extremely rare white-fur koala. His rarity meant that when he was he brought into a koala care 'hospital' for treatment, outside Sydney, the few staff members involved had to basically swear to keep his presence secret.
Why?
Because if word got out that 'Mick' was at the hospital, there was a very real risk that traders in blackmarket Australian fauna would raid the place to get their hands on this rarest of koala bears.
According to this report, 'Mick' was given "round-the-clock security protection in case anyone tried to steal him and sell him to a collector for his novelty value."
The good news is that 'Mick' underwent an operation, recovered to full health and has been returned to the wild.
