An overdue update

OK – where do I even start? It’s been 6 months between blogs so it will be hard to catch up, but here goes....

First of all, I’d like to welcome my latest koala recruits from the April Earthwatch trip – Jo, Jann, Ruth, and Sarah; with Viki and Chris joining us from Earthwatch.  You guys totally rock!  I can’t believe the amount of data you collected for me, and as for the laughs..... absolutely priceless. I will miss you. I hope one day you will be able to visit again.

The April crew helping find tagged trees at Aire River

The April Earthwatch crew helped me catch all the koalas and fit GPS loggers and accelerometers to their collars.  We then collected hours of observations to match with the accelerometer data.  Unlike in November, the koalas didn’t do much other than sleep, rest and scratch.  We had to venture out in the evening to get feeding and interaction observations.  We also completed a census at Bimbi (we are now at 18.8 koalas/hectare!), the never-ending tree assessments, and visited the Parker Hill blue gums (April 2011 participants would remember that site!).  We didn’t get lost but Jo managed to pick up a few leeches that really liked her flavour. 

One of Jo's blood-filled leeches

We also visited Aire River and Bimb West to do some habitat work.  A highlight for me was hiking back from Aire River along the Great Ocean trail.  Amazing views!

Great Ocean Walk - looking back to Aire River

We also started on the general biodiversity monitoring component of the project.  We (well.... the EW crew) set up 13 remote cameras in manna gum woodland and got some great photos of rats, mice, possums and wallabies.

"Do you think my butt looks big?"

"Hey - I got it"

"This smells really good"

"Hmmm... what is this thing?"

"Oops... I think I've been sprung"

And the data keeps rolling in.....  Shaun (honours student) has done an amazing job of analysing a large part of the data and just submitted his thesis on home range and habitat use by koalas.  Well done Shaun! Shaun and I will now start working on a manuscript for publication.

As for the koalas....

We removed the collars from the Aire River koalas in February.  This site was hard work and there didn’t seem to be much point in continuing after the end of the breeding season.  Thankfully, Juliet who normally hangs in a tea-tree over the river, chose that day to be in an easy to access location so she was the first to lose her collar.  Unfortunately, Clive was way out the back so it was a bit of an effort to get the catching gear in to him.  It was a looooooonnnng day.

The Bimbi koalas keep us entertained with their interactions and movements and have been providing good data.  Brendan appeared to be the dominant boy throughout the breeding season and did a good job of keeping most males away from the girls.  We never collared him but he was always easy to identify by the old fight wound on his shoulder.  Unfortunately for him, being the alpha male was not good for this old injury.  We watched it get progressively worse and in January, I found what I assumed to be his carcass at the bottom of Princess’ tree.  RIP Brendan L

Dave is still hanging around, often sitting in the trees at our lunch spot.  During this last trip, he was a bit befuddled to find us sitting at the base of his tree. He eventually worked out that he could walk around us to get to the tree... Dave doesn’t seem to be very bright but is still one of my favourites J



Dave



Tony Parker has become somewhat of a legend. His new collar failed (battery problems?) in February only a few days after catching him and fitting it.  So, one of our tasks for the April Earthwatch group was to find Tony P and get his collar sorted out.  Alas, Tony P was nowhere to be seen and my new Earthwatch crew looked somewhat sceptically at me every time I mentioned Tony’s name.  Was Tony P even real? They became even more sceptical when we caught an animal I swore was Tony P, only to find he was definitely not. Oh well, now we have a new koala named Erik. More about  Erik later....

I finally found Tony P on Monday and was understandably excited. Weather was not amenable to catching so we had to wait to catch him on Tuesday.  He had lost his collar (unfortunately with GPS and accelerometer) but the green 101 eartag gave him away.  Chris was lucky enough to help catch the stubborn boy and learned how to flag. Tony P was eventually persuaded to come to the ground. He continued to give us attitude while he was in the bag but we managed to get a new collar on him and released him back to his new favourite tree.

Tony Parker - not looking too comfy on that stick.

Erik... Erik is feisty (and that’s an understatement). Erik tried really hard to attack me once we had him out of the tree.  He threw himself at me several times and it was an effort to get him in the bag. He even caused problems when in the bag.  He left his mark on Viki’s hand.

Buffy... this girl loves to run.  She started moving when she saw me climbing the tree and before Viki and I knew it, Buffy was on the ground running. I was yelling ‘Run, Viki, run. Run faster!’ and Viki was running after her but Buffy was faster.  Thankfully, Buffy did not make a wise choice of what tree to climb so we were able to easily catch her from the ground.

Buffy

Ruby, Princess, Claire, and Nelly are all doing well.  Nelly’s bub ‘Georgie’ now weighs 2.3kg so is getting close to leaving home.  Claire’s bub ‘Charlotte’ is now independent but still likes to keep close to her mum.  Claire appears to remember me and flags no longer encourage her down the tree.  I had to climb to a point above her to make her move.  We also still see Lucie and Emily in the site. Emily is almost as big as her mum now.

Bruce, Wally, and Kevin look fairly ‘spent’ after the breeding season.  Kevin is still happily lusting after the girls though.  We watched him try with Lucie and on another occasion with a very small, untagged female.  Neither attempts were successful though.  Another male ‘Scar’ has moved into the site.  This male has suffered a horrific facial injury in the past... hence his name.  I saw this male in January 2011 when the injury looked to be new.  I didn’t think he’d survive but it appears he’s doing alright.  At least, we observed him trying his luck with Princess (no success though).

Scar

The next Earthwatch trip is in October but I will be tracking our koalas every two weeks (at least) until then. I’ll try to keep you better informed as to what they are doing. Until next time....

November news

I’ve been talking about starting this blog for a while so thought I should finally do something about it.  It’s been a fantastic year for me both in terms of koala research and of meeting some amazing people.  Together we have collected a wealth of data and gained some new insights into koala behaviour and dynamics at Cape Otway. 

The Earthwatch project kicked off in April with the capture of 10 koalas (5 females and 5 males) near Bimbi Park for fitting with radiocollars.  In September and October we caught additional koalas and replaced most radio collars with GPS collars.  Accelerometers (to record activity) were fitted to 15 koalas in October.  Loads of vegetation work, koala counts, koala observations, and listening to recordings of bellows have also been completed.  Most of us have managed to get a bit ‘misplaced’ (never lost!) at some point, and may have ended up on hands and knees to crawl out of the scrub.

A big THANK YOU to all my wonderful Earthwatch participants.  I could not have done this without you.

Now for the update of our koalas....

Bimbi – 10 koalas currently collared but we've lost some (through weaklinks breaking or us removing collars), and gained some more.

Princess (April) – Always near the gate at the entrance to the site.  She was never recorded in a tree other than A001 until September.

Claire (April) – Still in the same area and now with a very cute joey.  The joey was too small for us to attempt a catch in October.  Claire’s collar is looking good though and we will probably catch her in a few weeks to put a GPS collar on her.

Buffy (April) – She is such a pretty girl.  Buffy had a pouch bulge when we first caught her in April.  By June, she had lost the young and then went on a bit of a walk about 300m to the north of the site.  She was back in the site in October and hangs out in her old trees.  She has been attracting a bit of attention by the boys so may have another pouch bulge by April next year.

Buffy

Ruby (April) – Ruby has hardly moved from her April capture point.  She did not like being caught in October and gave me a ‘golden shower’.  A bit later in the day, a big male koala appeared to be a bit interested in me – I guess I smelled like Ruby.  Tony Parker has been observed having his way with Ruby!

Lucie (April) – Emily (named for my niece) emerged from Lucie’s pouch in August.  She is getting quite large and is probably close to leaving home.  Lucie is fighting off all the boys.  Dave had a go (I don’t think he was successful though), as did Brendan and Tony Parker.  Unfortunately we had to remove Lucie’s collar.  She had a scratch on one side of her neck – maybe a result of attention by males – and I didn’t want to risk it getting irritated by the collar.  I am hoping that we may be able to put the collar back on in a few weeks.

Lucie and joey 'Emily'

Nelly (October) – Originally caught in January for an honours project, this girl is now a replacement for Lucie.

Randy (April) – Randy was our hardest koala to track in September.  Two participants were heard to say ‘It took us 45 minutes to get Randy’. The weaklink broke in Randy’s collar in early October.

Willy (April) – Willy was first captured in January for an honours project, and named in honour of one of my French volunteers.  He was a big, old boy who removed a piece from my finger when we first caught him.  We removed Willy’s collar in September when we observed some signs of rubbing.  He has been observed since, harassing the girls and fighting the boys.

Nelson (April) – His weaklink broke in July so we caught ‘Banjo’ as a replacement. 

Banjo (September) – Banjo is a replacement for Nelson and appears to be a fairly dominant male; at least, in an interaction with Kevin, a look from Banjo was enough to scare Kevin away.

Dave (April) – One of my favourites! We had to remove Dave’s collar in September when we observed signs of rubbing.  Dave is still missing some hair off his neck which makes him easy to identify (he doesn’t have an eartag).  He always bellows a greeting and is trying very hard with the girls.  I managed to snap some photos of him trying to get his way with Lucie.  She was not interested and fought him off.  Dave tried clinging to Lucie’s shoulders but ended up falling about 5 metres.  He picked himself up and tried again not long afterwards.

Dave trying his best with Lucie

Wally (October) – This boy caused us some concern in October.  He disappeared about 1km into the scrub and we found him in a tea tree thicket above Rainbow Falls.  I was worried he wouldn’t find his way back but a week later, he was back in his usual tree.  I caught him to remove his accelerometer and he was no worse the wear for his trip.

Kevin (October) – First caught in January.  Kevin is actually pretty wimpy.  We have observed him in several interactions with males and he always seems to lose.

Tony Parker (October) – Named by a French volunteer after a french basketballer. Tony Parker lives in the centre of the site and is always looking for some action, whether it is fighting with the boys, or trying to get his way with the girls.  We watched him get his way with Lucie during the October trip.

Bruce (October) – You’ve got to love Bruce!  He’s a big male in his prime.

Brendan – Never collared but easily identified by the scars on his right side.  They look like fight wounds and have recently opened up again.  I’m not surprised – he always seems to be at the centre of the action.

Brendan - looking a bit worn out!

Aire River – 7 koalas

Janice (September) – This one is a bit of a drama queen.  We caught her to switch her collar over to a GPS one and she squealed from the moment I was near her.  Her GPS data confirms what we thought – she loves the little trees on the entrance road to the campground.  Maybe she likes to greet the campers?

Olivia (September) – Always in the campground.  She favours the plastic-collared trees in the middle.

Juliet (September) – This girl literally threw herself at us in September.  She saw me approaching and decided to jump.  Unfortunately, she misjudged and fell a few metres to the ground.  She was not hurt and is still doing well. She seems to love the tea trees at the water’s edge. I’ve discovered that snakes like those spots too L

Isabelle (October) – Small but judging from toothwear, has been around for a while.  Like the other girls, she doesn’t appear to move much from where we first caught her.

Rich (September) – Named in honour of Earthwatch’s Executive Director Rich Gilmore.  I thought he was relatively sedentary until we downloaded the GPS logger we attached to him.  He went on a 2-day trip of a few kilometres into the coastal scrub.  Why?  I have no idea.  Perhaps he was bored with the girls at Aire River?

Rich's tracks - these GPS loggers are really cool

Clive (October) – Caught in a low tree just above the road but seems to like the prickliest, hardest-to-get-to parts of the bush.  I still have several thorns from prickly moses bushes in my knees from my last hunt for him.

Jonno (October) – Likes to hang out near the road (nice!).