Looking forward....

My research at Cape Otway has not come to an end, but rather expanded into a broader project on the ecology and management of southern koalas. To that end, I will not be continuing this blog, but have finally created a website where you can stay up-to-date on southern koalas: https://victoriankoalaresearch.wordpress.com.

Taking stock...

I have not blogged since January. Sadly, this reflects the lack of blog-worthy news about Cape Otway’s koalas. The government’s plan to address the problems at the Cape has met with partial success. Most of the radio collared koalas that were translocated in September have survived which leads us to hope that the 300+ koalas translocated through to December also have prospered in their new home. However, tree condition at Cape Otway continues to decline under the feeding pressure of ~1000 koalas and other than inserting some hormone implants into a small proportion of the female population (most of which would have already had pouch young), the government has not taken any more action. And there don't appear to be any plans to.

It is frustrating to sit by and watch Cape Otway manna gum woodlands continue to decline in condition. It is concerning that there don’t appear to be any plans for more translocations. Fertility control is a long-term approach for reducing population density and will not reduce the current unsustainable browsing pressure on trees. Data collected by our February Earthwatch team showed that tree condition in many sites is critically poor. I expect further declines by our next data collection in September and November. On the positive side, it is awesome to see the local landholders and the Conservation Ecology Centre actively planting trees, but of course, this also is a long-term approach.

Plenty of females with young in February.

So, what does this mean for the future of koala research at Cape Otway? Sadly, the Cape has become a difficult place for field research. I will continue to undertake some monitoring at our long-term sites, but it is no longer possible for me to continue the Earthwatch trips and conduct research there on koala behaviour and ecology. On a number of occasions in 2015, my research was compromised by government management actions – study animals (identified with eartags) were euthanased or given hormone implants without my being notified. I can’t take the risk that the same won’t happen again.

I now have started projects in other locations. On the Mornington Peninsula, students and I are working with the local community of Somers to understand the ecology of their urban koalas. If you are interested in learning more about that project, please join our facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/MPKoalas/. We have radio collared some koalas there and have been fascinated to see how widely they roam. Other projects (and students) are considering southern koala populations and threats more broadly. In many locations, koala populations appear to be declining. We need to gain a better understanding of those situations.

Tracks of one of our boys in Somers.

2016... off to a blazing start

Translocating koalas always will be a risky business. Although many of the risks can be mitigated through careful choice of animals and translocation site, it is impossible to make accurate long-term predictions of extreme weather events, and where lightning may strike and cause out-of-control wildfires. We can't hold decision-makers responsible for these events and how they affect translocated animals. In the case of the Cape Otway koala translocations, DELWP did their best to time the program and select a release site that would give translocated koalas the best chance of survival. They now also have implemented a monitoring program which addresses one of my earlier concerns about their program (see my last blog).

In Victoria, there is always potential for extremely hot weather in December and January but I don’t think anyone could have predicted the severity of the heatwave that hit Victoria in late December 2015. This weather undoubtedly would have affected survival of the 400 koalas translocated from Cape Otway in Nov/Dec but also would have affected survival of those remaining at Cape Otway too. As for fire, neither Cape Otway nor the area where the translocated koalas were released have been affected… yet.... but, Victoria’s fire season is far from over.

The Great Ocean Road fires that have been reported widely in the media were sparked by lightning strikes on the 19^th December (http://news.cfa.vic.gov.au/news/lorne-fires-update). Despite hard work by CFA crews, these fires burned out of control, eventually claiming many properties in the townships of Wye River and Separation Creek. Thankfully, no human lives were lost but the impact of these fires on all wildlife (not just koalas!) will have been considerable.

More heat waves and greater frequency and intensity of wildfire are increasing threats to the conservation of many wildlife species. Research already has indicated that koalas have poor tolerance for dry, hot conditions and in parts of Queensland where heatwaves are becoming more common and last longer, koalas are disappearing. Although our current focus in southern Australia is managing the impacts of high-density koala populations, we should not forget that many of our koala populations are threatened by warming climates and therefore must consider how we can manage these populations more effectively too.  

Location of the fire affected area relative to the translocation
area in the Great Otway National Park

 

Feeling uneasy....

Two weeks ago, the government started translocating koalas from Cape Otway to a location somewhere near Lorne. I have observed this with mixed and somewhat uneasy feelings. Translocation is the only way to rapidly reduce the Cape Otway koala population and give some koalas and trees a chance, but is it too late? And what is the cost to the translocated koalas and habitat at the release site?

Unfortunately, we will never really know the answer to those last two questions. While it is correct that the government conducted a trial translocation of 37 koalas, at the time of making the decision to translocate hundreds more, only about half of those 37 koalas had been found and their health reassessed. And, it was only four weeks after they'd been moved. Research suggests that the effects of chronic stress associated with translocation may not be seen for at least three months. Furthermore, no females with back young were included in the trial group yet many of the koalas being translocated now have large back young. I suspect that those back young will be abandoned by their stressed mothers. So are all these koalas just being moved to suffer a slow death out of sight? With no plans to monitor even a small sample of these animals, we will never know.

The risks to the habitat in the release area also may be high. Although all female koalas will be given hormone implants to stop their future breeding, it is likely that most are already pregnant. Peak breeding activity this year occurred in late October and with around 90% of females producing young each year, if the koalas survive the translocation, they will be producing fertile young. Will this result in a koala problem at the release site?

I was shocked and more than a little disappointed to learn that the government has no intention to monitor the success/failure of this translocation program beyond checking on the trial animals once every three months. Here they have a prime opportunity to learn whether this approach is effective in terms of koala welfare and risks to the release site. If they believe that this is the last time that translocation will be needed, they are being very short-sighted. So why not learn from this program?

And, what of the manna gum habitat at Cape Otway? Even the removal of 400 koalas and sterilisation of others won't be enough to save habitat in the long-term. More translocation and significantly more effort to catch and sterilise female koalas will be needed, and even then, it is probably too late for many trees.
 

Will this joey and ones like it survive translocation? Without monitoring, we will never know.

Culling koalas? Who would dare suggest such a thing?

Interestingly enough, some Queensland and New South Wales researchers have just published a paper suggesting that koalas be culled. Not just any koalas though; just those that are suffering terminal effects of Chlamydia and transmitting this disease to healthy koalas. Using computer simulations, they showed that this 'selective culling' approach would result in an increase in population size in 'The Koala Coast' population in Queensland as a result of reduced disease incidence.

Not surprisingly, their suggestion resulted in a little confusion in the media. Afterall, it wasn't that long ago that everyone was upset about 'culling' starving and extremely ill koalas at Cape Otway.

Today, I published an article about 'culling' koalas in The Conversation (http://theconversation.com/a-cull-could-help-save-koalas-from-chlamydia-if-we-allowed-it-49195). In short, I believe that culling should be available for managing koalas whether it be for disease management OR to address overabundance issues. The current 'no culling' policy has resulted in many koalas at Cape Otway suffering slow deaths due to starvation. Watching koalas die like this is horrific to witness. Although the thought of 'culling' healthy koalas doesn't entirely sit well with me (I love these animals), I would much prefer to see a few culled than to see an entire population suffer and a unique ecosystem disappear.

This is not to say that 'culling' should be used indiscriminately though. It should only be used when other approaches fail or aren't viable. Governments need to be more proactive in assessing management options in advance of problems occurring. If that had happened at Cape Otway, the population needing management would have been much smaller, fewer animals would have been affected, and a crisis situation averted.

Eavesdropping on koalas

Thanks to the generosity of Wildlife Acoustics, we will soon be eavesdropping on koala conversations. Wildlife Acoustics has provided me with some Songmeters that I will be deploying in a number of sites in the Otways. Songmeters are recorders that can be programmed to record whenever you want them to. These ones will be programmed to remotely record for 5 minutes per hour for up to a month, and capture the 'song' of any koalas vocalising at the time.

Queensland researchers already have shown that systematic recordings can be used to determine the timing of the breeding season. Our project will build on that by examining if there is a relationship between the frequency of bellows in recordings and the density of koalas (from visual surveys) in a site. If we find that there is a relationship, using Songmeter recorders may be a less time-consuming and more systematic way of monitoring koala populations throughout Victoria.

Koala 'Dave' singing

Many thanks to Wildlife Acoustics for supporting our research!

To translocate or not to translocate?

This is a question that is currently in the spotlight.

In my opinion, translocation should ONLY be undertaken as a last resort when:

• reducing the koala population in an area is critical to saving habitat, and
• it is likely that translocated koalas will have a high probability of survival.

The better option would be for governments to implement long-term management actions (fertility control and habitat management) prior to emergency situations arising. That advice was ignored for Cape Otway so unfortunately, translocation of koalas is now the only option for saving some of our manna gum woodlands and all of the wildlife it supports. It also may be the only option for avoiding more koala starvation and more koala euthanasia.

 

When a situation is allowed to get this bad, translocation may be the only answer

But do translocated koalas survive? It depends on a lot of factors. A few key things to be considered are:

• Koalas should be healthy and relatively young,
• The receiving habitat should contain koala food trees in healthy condition,
• The receiving location should have a climate similar to the original site (that's why interstate translocations should be avoided),
• Will there be any impacts of translocated koalas on the receiving habitat (including the resident koala population)? For example, koalas should not be translocated to areas like South Gippsland where koalas have more diverse genetics or to areas where there is a high incidence of disease.

Other translocations

Translocation has been a component of other long-term koala management programs. While working on the Kangaroo Island Koala Management Program, colleagues and I conducted research trials out of concern for the welfare of koalas being translocated to the south-east of mainland South Australia. We radio collared a number of koalas that were surgically-sterilised and translocated, and also radio collared some surgically-sterilised koalas remaining on the Island.

If you are interested in the full details of our study, we published the results in The Journal of Wildlife Management (Whisson et al. 2012. 'Translocation of overabundant species: Implications for translocated individuals', http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jwmg.401/abstract).

To summarise our main findings:

• We observed low mortality in the first three months following translocation but 37.5% translocated koalas were dead after 12 months compared to none in the control group that remained on the island.
• Translocated koalas moved greater distances than those that remained on the island. Some individuals moved up to 10km within the first three months post-translocation.

Clearly, translocated koalas were negatively impacted and this is why I believe that translocation should be a last-resort action only. An 'acceptable' level of mortality also should be decided on prior to large-scale translocations occurring.


So what about translocation of koalas in Victoria?

Obviously koalas can survive translocation (most koala populations in Victoria have resulted from koalas translocated from island populations) but under what conditions and how many koalas survive the process? Surprisingly, despite the tens of thousands of koalas that have been translocated in Victoria over the years, to my knowledge there only have been a few studies of koala survival and the results appear only in draft reports. In some cases mortality has been high (around 90% translocated koalas dying) and this is why the government has been reluctant to use the approach for management of koalas at Cape Otway.

However, the reasons for such high mortality in some translocations aren't clear. Is it that koalas can't adapt to new food sources (when moved from manna gum to other forest types), or is it that they have been stressed by their treatment (surgical or hormone implant), or are they being moved to unsuitable habitat?

Hopefully some of these questions will be answered by the current trial being conducted by the government, and that the koalas in the trial survive. I also hope that the government learns from this situation and develops long-term management strategies for koalas and their habitats to avoid having to use translocation as a last-resort management tool.

Government announces imminent management actions for Cape Otway koalas

Today, the Victorian government issued a media release about upcoming management actions for koalas at Cape Otway. The program will involve checking the health of 300 to 400 koalas, euthanasing any koalas found to be in poor condition, and initiating a study to examine the potential to translocate koalas to other forest in the Otways.

This is welcome news!

Habitats at Cape Otway are continuing to decline under the browsing pressure of so many koalas. In one of our study sites, koala densities have climbed back to 9 koalas per hectare, and the trees are showing considerable stress. Although it may be too late to save much of the manna gum woodland, it may be possible to prevent the suffering of many koalas. A lot depends on koalas surviving the translocation trial. If there is high mortality of koalas in the trial, then the only option is fertility control which is too slow acting to avoid another population crash.

Manna Gum Drive - trees continuing to decline

Without translocation, this mum and joey are unlikely to survive for long

Our research which is generously funded by Earthwatch Australia and supported by Earthwatch volunteers, continues to provide important information on koala densities and habitat condition across the Cape, and has been critical in informing the government's management actions. In fact, as I write this post, a team of Earthwatchers are surveying our long-term monitoring sites. Future teams will continue to monitor those sites and participate in studies of koala behaviour and their response to their ever-changing landscape.

Planting by Earthwatchers to rebuild koala habitat

Choosing mates.... size, age, or persistence?

Remarkably little is known about the love life of koalas. Are they fussy about who they mate with, or is it simply a case of a male being in the right place at the right time?…. and by ‘right time’ I mean when the female is receptive. This breeding season we are hoping to find the answer. We are deploying proximity collars fitted with GPS loggers to every koala we can find in a woodland patch. These collars record the time and duration of interactions between collared koalas. So far, we have 19 koalas collared but still have another 17 collars to deploy.

The study is the basis of an honours project by Deakin student ‘Darcy’. Darcy has already done an amazing job of preparing the collars, and has proven to be a capable koala catcher and handler. He will now have the task of tracking and observing these koalas, mapping resources throughout the site, and in January retrieving the collars for data download and interpretation.

Darcy bonding with the joey of one of his study animals

 

Beast

RIP Beast

I was sad to learn that 'Beast' was one of the 29 koalas euthanased during the last round of health checks of koalas at the Cape. Sad, but not really surprised.

Beast was an old fellow of around 12 years of age. He was looking a bit the worse for wear at the end of the last breeding season but I had hoped he would survive to the next. He was a legendary animal; not necessarily the prettiest koala I've encountered but he had loads of character. He showed the most aggression out of all the males in our study of responses to bellows. He survived the population crash of 2013, finding ways into banded trees and constantly wandering in search of good food (and female koalas). The vets didn't think he would survive then because he was so old. He knew the drill when it came to being caught too. He grumbled but seemed to realise that resisting would only make the process longer.

Beast always sat low in trees so he would have been a prime target for the catching crews looking to sample 10 koalas from that site. I was told that his condition was poor and that the vets did not give him more than a 10% chance of survival. I think they may have underestimated him!

I was disappointed that nobody thought to tell me at the time, or save his carcass for me. I would have loved to take some samples and save his skull.

I wonder how many of the other koalas euthanased were in poor condition due to age? When DELWP reported 29% koalas euthanased, we immediately assume that it's due to poor habitat condition but is that really the case at the moment?

Finally.... a management program for koalas at Cape Otway

This week, the Department for Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) began assessing health of koalas at Cape Otway as the first part of a long-term management program for koalas and manna gum woodlands at the Cape.

This is an extremely positive action to inform management actions that are likely to include fertility control and translocation. Such management is necessary if we are to avoid a repeat of late 2013 when thousands of koalas died of starvation.

However, the media appears to be intent on stirring up the public with headlines like 'Killing to resume at Cape Otway koala colony' (The Australian), and 'Koala cull on the cards' (Sky News Australia). I spoke with a few of the reporters and advised them on the consequences for koala welfare if health is not monitored. Obviously those stories don't sell papers and reporters/editors don't mind if their poor reporting results in animal suffering.

I respect Victoria's Minister for Environment (Hon Lisa Neville) for listening to scientific advice and requesting the development of a long-term management strategy for this issue.

If you would like to hear more about koala management at Cape Otway, you can check out DELWPs facebook post or see them on twitter;

DELWP discuss this management action (Facebook)

DELWP on twitter about Cape Otway koalas

Getting the facts right

The misinformation in the media over the last few days has been frustrating to read. I am writing this blog to set the record straight, clarify the need for the actions of late 2013 and early 2014, and answer a few questions about koala management.
 
Around 75 koalas were relocated from French Island to Cape Otway in the early 1980s. Most of these probably survived because they were hand-picked healthy individuals that were relocated from manna gum woodland to manna gum woodland. In addition to being similar habitat, the Cape Otway manna gum did not have a resident koala population. These are important points to remember!

In manna gum woodlands, koalas become manna gum specialists and their behaviour is different to what is seen elsewhere. Their ranges are small (less than 1/2 hectare), they tolerate other koalas in close proximity, fecundity is almost 100%, and joeys survive to become breeders themselves. This results in population growth and densities that are seen nowhere else. In addition, in places where fire is suppressed (human intervention) there are no natural regulators of population growth.

These koalas seem to tolerate other koalas in close proximity

This koala (joey on belly) struggles to find enough food

In 2008, there were about 450 hectares of manna gum at Cape Otway adjacent to the vast blue gum/grey gum/mountain ash forests of the Great Otway National Park. By September 2013, there were around 200 hectares of manna gum left. Koalas had defoliated and killed trees to the south and numbers had increased in the north due to koala movement from the south and breeding. Trees began to die but most koalas showed no sign of moving. Female koalas abandoned their joeys and all koalas started eating bark, grass and sometimes dirt. 

On a personal note, I dreaded my weekly visits to Cape Otway because each week I would have to pick up yet another carcass of one (sometimes several) of my study animals. The day I picked up 4 and took another emaciated one to a carer to have euthanased was my lowest. I have not seen anything like it in 25 plus years of working in wildlife management. 

There was a smell of rotting koala in the air. Landholders were suffering extreme stress watching both koalas and trees die. 15 of 20 of my radiocollared animals died, most of those before the government finally stepped in and started putting animals out of their misery. 

I applaud the government for making the difficult decision, especially knowing that there could be significant negative media. Had the media of this week happened back then, 686 koalas would have still died, but their suffering would have been for much longer. I felt incredibly sorry for the team that had the difficult task.

It was not a cull. It was euthanasia of irreversibly sick animals. Healthy animals were released, females given a hormone implant. 

It was not done secretly. It was done in a very public place and hundreds, if not thousands of people were there to witness it. Landholders knew. Prior to the euthanasia, I had tried contacting the media. The few times when my call/email was actually returned, it usually was to say something like "we don't want to get in the way of what needs to be done".

Perhaps if the government had taken action sooner we may have avoided having to take such drastic but necessary action. But in 2013 it was too late for hindsight: the problem was there and needed to be addressed. 

This animal was too weak to climb.
I found some leaves for him

So what are the options for dealing with overabundant koalas at Cape Otway? The following are the only ones that are permitted:

1. Relocation to other forests or zoos? In 2008 there would have been between around 4000 koalas in manna gum. In 2013 there were likely more. These koalas are manna gum specialists and there are studies that show that between 90 and 100% of koalas relocated from manna gum to other forest types die. There is no manna gum left in Victoria that doesn't already have a large number of koalas so there is no manna gum to relocate koalas to. Zoos are not interested in taking adult koalas. Adult koalas straight from the wild are difficult to handle and feed and are stressed around people. Zoos only want joeys or young subadults that they can hand-raise and habituate to people.

2. Fertility control? Very expensive and may only have low effectiveness. However, at this point it really is the only option to stop koalas increasing in number again. It may be more effective than first thought. Results from some of my tracking work suggests that high site fidelity means that there is little movement of koalas within some areas. The government would need to commit to a long-term plan though to address issues of koalas moving in from the neighbouring forests of the Great Otway National Park.

3. Plant more trees? The landholders have been doing this for years and have plans to continue.

4. Let 'nature take its course'? Loss of the manna gum ecosystem may be the final outcome despite all our efforts. Personally, I would like to do whatever possible to avoid that. I hope you agree!

Taking a breather

Today, koalas are in the media and I've been forced to take a breather from writing lectures for interviews with radio, newspaper and TV. So what is all the fuss about? After more than a year since the koala population crash and government welfare interventions of late 2013 and February 2014, the media has decided that it is a story worth reporting. It's not often that the media is that slow is it?

My day started at 6am when the bellowing of koala 'Dave' woke me. For those of you who don't know, Dave is my ringtone on my mobile. It is not pleasant to be woken by a koala bellowing in your ear! The caller was 3AW radio wanting to talk about the 'secret cull of koalas at Cape Otway'. Apparently 'The Australian' newspaper had written an article titled that and discussing the government's program to euthanase starving koalas in 2013/14. I suppose government conspiracies and cover-ups get people's attention because I have since spent my day in interviews and taking phone calls to set up interviews.

My only hope is that this media interest will result in a positive outcome for long-term management of koalas and their habitats at Cape Otway. The problem has not gone away and our November and February counts suggest that koala numbers are beginning to increase again in areas where manna gum survived the 2013 events. Without management, there will be another population crash. I definitely do not want to witness something like that again.

Here is the opening of The Australian article that triggered chaos today:

"ALMOST 700 koalas have been secretly killed by lethal injection near Victoria’s Great Ocean Road and thousands more are in danger of starvation due to an ongoing crisis caused by overpopulation in one of the nation’s key habitats. The Australian can ­reveal that wildlife officials conducted three euthanasia operations in 2013 and 2014 to kill 686 koalas, in what was a covert campaign to avoid any backlash from green groups and the community."

Despite the title and opening sentences, they at least got some of the story right:

"Deakin University koala expert Desley Whisson was part of the team that dealt with the problem a year ago and warned that the problem would continue. Dr Whisson said the density of koalas on the cape was potentially the greatest in Australia and that some of the ­animals were in such poor health that euthanasia was the only ­option.

“It was a blessing when the vets came,’’ she said. As well as invading the Bimbi Park campground, the koalas stripped stands of manna gums, virtually wiping out the trees and making it difficult for the 8000-strong group to find food. Only the fittest specimens were able to survive, leaving the oldest and, in some cases, smallest koalas to starve. Dr Whisson said the reduction in numbers had nothing to do with thinning out the population and was all about dealing humanely with sick koalas."

Koala love

I’m often asked questions about koala reproduction and considering that we are now entering the peak of the koala breeding season (at Cape Otway at least), I thought I’d put together a summary of what we know about koala ‘love’. Actually, there is not that much ‘love’ involved and for anyone who had witnessed a male koala that is full of testosterone, harassing a female koala that is not interested in him, you’d know what I’m talking about. The female will scream her disinterest and if the male gets too close, she will fight him off with tooth and claw. Eventually, he will retreat, often bellowing (in frustration?). Ten minutes or so later, he will try again. Observations suggest that he will continue to stay close to his chosen female, sitting in a lower fork of the tree and guarding her closely.

A male trying desperately to get some 'love'. He managed to grab the female but eventually
lost his grip and fell about 5m.

 

He  simply climbed back up the tree to await another opportunity

This male took an interest in me. I'd had the misfortune of being urinated on by a female that we were catching. Considering his obvious 'excitement', I think he may have thought I was a female koala.

 

I have only ever seen a few copulations in the wild. In one, the female went to the male (she actually woke him up). In another, the male went straight to the female, passing another female on the same branch. Obviously, given the number of joeys we see, there are a lot of successful copulations. Around 80% of the females in our Cape Otway population this year have joeys. This means that even the food shortage last year did not disrupt the breeding cycle.

The koala gestation period is around 33 to 35 days. The young is born at the embryonic stage (as with all marsupials) and crawls its way to the pouch. Typically there is only one young although twins can occur. In wild populations, it is likely that only one of these will survive through to independence.

Twins for a female at Cape Otway (photo courtesy of DEPI)

The young latches on to one of two teats and will remain in the pouch for about 6 months. The mother prepares her joey for its eucalyptus leaf diet by producing a faecal pap for the joey to feed on. This helps the joey transition from a milk- to a leaf-diet. At 6 to 7 months of age, the joey (300 – 500g) emerges from the pouch and clings tightly to the mother. It will begin eating leaves although continues to poke its head back into the pouch for milk.

After leaving the mother's pouch, a joey will regularly poke its head back in the pouch for a drink.

 

The mother will carry the joey on its back for around 3 months.

 

By 9 months, the joey will weigh around 1kg, and at 12 months and ~2.5kg it is fully weaned. Weaning usually occurs when the mother becomes pregnant again. The mother will become quite aggressive towards her young. This can be heartbreaking to watch – the mother screaming and lashing out at her young, and the young crying. It is not uncommon to see a few of these rejected young hanging out together. On one of my Earthwatch trips, a recently weaned joey even sought comfort from one of the Earthwatchers. It literally chased her and began climbing her leg.

This joey is nearing independence.

There are still a lot of questions about how koalas select their mates and how long males will guard females. I am hoping that we will get some answers to these questions this breeding season. We have deployed ‘proximity collars’ on males and females in the same area. When koalas wearing these collars are within a few metres of each other, each collar will record the ID of the other collar, the time, and the duration of interactions.

What's in a name?

Some say that it is not good scientific practice to name your study animals. Obviously I disagree. I think a name is easier to remember than a number and allows us all to engage more with the research. Besides, Jane Goodall named her chimpanzees so why can’t I name my koalas?

Since 2010, about 50 Cape Otway koalas have been named. I have generally allowed those helping me catch to choose a name but ‘try’ to claim the power of veto. I say ‘try’ because sometimes a name is slipped in without me getting a chance to veto, or I am simply out-voted. Here's just a few that had reasons behind their names...

Princess – captured by an Earthwatch team on the day of the royal wedding. I thought ‘Kate’ would be fitting but I was ignored. 'Princess' lived up to her name though. Such a drama queen in a catch!

Lucie – named for my lovely French volunteer. She had the same sweet personality (See the photo at the top of the blog).

Dave – you just have to love a koala called ‘Dave’. Dave is definitely my favourite.

Kevin – the eleventh koala ever collared... "Kevin Eleven"

Bruce – big, grumbly and slow-moving. Bruuuuuuuccce.....

Bruce

Tony Parker – a French basketballer. Apparently this koala moved just like him? Named by a French volunteer.

Erik – after the Viking (Erik the Red) who was shipwrecked at Cape Otway.

Erik

Mac – moved as fast as a Mac truck.

Frankie – named for Frank from Bimbi Park. We messed up on matching personalities here though. Koala 'Frank' was plain nasty and earnt him the nickname 'Cranky Frankie'.

Beast – quite scary and ‘beast’-like and named by a visiting researcher. We estimate him to be about 12 y.o. so he's my oldest boy.

Beast

Scarface – pretty obvious really. In 2010 I came across him. He had a terribly infected face wound (not sure what caused it) and I didn't think he'd live. A year later, I saw him with a healed but scarred face so decided to collar him. He still lives on.... a resilient fellow.

Scarface

Emily, Charly, Georgie, and Benjamin were joeys named for my three nieces and nephew. Some of the few named by me and obviously the cutest joeys ever.

And from our latest trip, we have Diamond named as a thank you to Mitsubishi, Fran named for San Francisco zoo, and Sarah and Tigger both named by Earthwatchers for their own personal reasons. Next week I will be heading back to the Cape to add another 16 koalas to the list. Any suggestions for names?

Cut..... Take 137... Rolling....

I was fortunate to be able to join the September Earthwatch team for a few days of their trip. 'Fortunate' in that I loved spending time with yet another group of enthusiastic people who share my passion for the environment. The unfortunate part was that it was only for a few days AND involved a lot of time spent in front of a camera, often having to repeat the same tasks and conversations multiple times. One of the holes I dug while planting trees nearly took me to China it was so deep by the time the film crew got their perfect shot. I know the promotion of the project will make it all worthwhile though. Mitsubishi has generously provided funding to Earthwatch to make a documentary of the 'Conserving Koala Country' Earthwatch trip.
 
Despite all that was happening, I did get a chance to find our old collared friends. Bella is looking good and appears to have decided to settle in her new area over the hill. Buffy also hasn't moved much since February. Sally is back in her original range and has a tiny pouch young. I only caught a glimpse of a leg poking out of her pouch. No wonder she left Sammy behind in March... she needed to prepare for a new joey. I found Dave sitting in a tree near the driveway of Pat and Cyril's and he bellowed a greeting.

I took the film crew to meet him so that they could film him bellow but Dave turned camera shy and just scowled at us. Interestingly, Scarface was sitting in the neighbouring tree to Dave. I was happy to see him because he dropped his collar months ago so I haven't seen him for a while.

Dave goes camera shy

Scarface still hanging around

True to form, Beast was trying to romance a female. Judging by her screams, she wasn't interested but I'm guessing he will wait until she is. He's pretty persistent. We caught both Beast and the female (now named 'Tigger') and put proximity collars on them. These will tell us when they finally do get together and then when they break up. That's koala love for you... not long term! Each collar has a unique code and when within a few metres of each other, they each record the other code and the time spent near it. Cool stuff!  We also caught and collared a new male named 'Diamond' by Earthwatchers Craig and Robyn. The diamond is part of Mitsubishi's logo so we thought that this name was a nice way to thank Mitsubishi for their sponsorship.

On my last day, we found a female (with a large joey) in the same area as Beast and his as-yet-unwilling girlfriend, so I decided to try to catch her too for fitting a proximity collar. When I finally got myself into a good position to catch (2 anchor points up!), this female decided that she didn't like the idea of being caught and moved just out of reach. Anybody who has ever climbed to catch koalas would understand how I felt at this point. I came pretty close to calling it off... but... it was a perfect koala for the study, the last opportunity to catch on this trip, and ultimately, I am stubborn and hate being out-smarted by a koala. So, I took a deep breath, muttered a few choice words that I hope the film crew didn't hear and record, and anchored a third point in the tree. This time, I managed to get the koala into the neighbouring tree where my able Earthwatchers (Jenna and Tori) could flag her. I was back down the tree in a lot less time than it took me to get up and soon our little mum and joey were snug in holding bags. I am sure that Jenna and Tori were pleased that I didn't call the catch off because they got to mind the little joey (a girl - named Sarah by Jenna) while I processed the mum (named 'Fran' as an acknowledgement for the San Francisco Zoo who sponsored Jenna's trip). Fran and Sarah were soon reunited and released and were climbing their way back up the tree (much quicker than I climbed it!).
 
Today, I am back in Melbourne and feeling a bit creaky, sore and tired. Despite that, I have no regrets. It was such a pleasure to work alongside such amazing people, and as always, a privilege to have the opportunity to study these beautiful animals. I take back what I said yesterday and instead say "I will never be too old to do this".

Thanks to the Earthwatch crew (Kento, Shirley, Robyn, Craig, Jenna, Tori), Alistair (co-PI) and Cass (Earthwatch Australia) for letting me join you, and my Bimbi Park family for everything you do for me (Dimitri - I wish you a speedy recovery). I also would like to thank the film crew (Sharon, Andrew, Brent, Max, Jess, Clint and Amy) for your patience. If there's ever a next time though, makeup, hairstyling, my own motorhome and a massage or two would be appreciated :-) Oh, and I'm going to add a fee for joeys...