Whilst over recent decades, summer has slowly morphed from endless days of beach-strewn joy to a season of terror for homo-Australis, spare a thought for the myriad unique animals and birds that co-exist on this continent beside us.
We hear and read a lot about climate change …
- Is it real? … yes!
- Is it a hoax? … no, climate change is not a hoax!
- Can it be ameliorated? … yes, if we act in unison!
- Can we adapt? … mostly, we have, to a degree and to date!
… but as we re-run our modern version of Nero, his fiddle, and the fires of Rome, the environment slowly but perceptibly heats. The climate science is clear: decade by decade, since 1900 [surface air temperature] and 1910 [surface water temperature], our air has heated by 1.4C and our seas have warmed by 1C.
Despite the terror, the life-challenging hardship [especially in regional/rural areas], the seemingly endless major economic stressors, and the annual toll on our firefighters, at home we have air conditioners to switch on [black-outs notwithstanding], or swimming pools to cool off in, or a beach nearby. But our beasties don’t have the same luxury … simply put, they just get hung out to fry!
In the unremitting heat of our increasingly harsh Australian summer, we must urgently learn to care for those unable to care for themselves … our bush and domestic animals and birds. Of all, the most vulnerable is the Koala – our ‘canary in the coal mine’ for eco-disaster. They can’t bound, like kangaroos, to shade or water – if it can be found. They can’t fly, like birds, to somewhere cooler – if it can be found. They can’t dig, like wombats, small marsupials, or echidna, to darker, danker, cooler soil – if it can be found. They remain defencelessly exposed to scorching sun and hot northerly winds, in tree-tops once their sanctuary, now their snare. A Koala has nowhere to hide!
A FaceBook post this week from Remedios Linden of Surfcoast Wildlife Rescue made me question my self-centredness as I drove home to Lorne with a new cooling tower for my bedroom. While ‘I might be right, Jack’, what of Blinky Bill? His thoughtful piece was about how to care for our healthy population of Otway Koalas. But beyond warning of the dangers of heat – the time when Koalas are likely most stressed, most likely to ‘ground out’, and most exposed to dog attack or vehicle strike – he made me think more broadly of ‘how best to care for the treasured creatures’ of the Otway forest. Let’s look beyond ourselves at the end of this dreadful 2020 year and resolve to: ‘Care for Our Creatures’.
I have paraphrased Remedios’ post as follows:
From now until the end of February is Koala breeding season. Female Koalas are fertile from the age of two, usually carrying one joey each year. Males breed from the age of three or four. Joeys are born four weeks after mating: they are two centimetres long, blind, furless, and have rudimentary ears. It spends 7 months in its mother’s uniquely ‘designed’, backward-facing pouch that opens to the rear. Inside is a novel teat that swells inside the joey’s mouth and holds it firmly inside the pouch.
A little before the joey leaves the pouch, the mother Koala feeds toe joey a mix of specialised faeces [pap] containing intestinal micro-organisms. This helps the joey to populate its gut with the right organisms to digest the naturally-occurring toxins in its gum leaf diet. On leaving the pouch, the joey travels on its mother’s back but returns to the pouch to suckle until weaning and independence by twelve months of age.
Predominantly nocturnal, Koalas usually sleep for 18-20 hours, conserve the energy they need to digest their toxic, fibrous, low-nutrition eucalyptus diet. Living in tall eucalypt forests and low eucalypt woodlands, their ‘home range’ usually comprising no more than two or three eucalypt species. Fussy eaters – our Victorian Koalas prefer Manna, Swamp, Blue, or River Red Gum – each adult Koala eats up to a kilogram of leaves each night.
Their greatest threat is loss of habitat and, with Australia having one of the highest rates of land clearing in the world, 80% of Koala habitat has been lost. Loss of feed trees has led to death by starvation while others have been forced into the suburban rim to intersect human activity in the search for new home ranges. Consequently, some 4,000 Koalas are killed annually by pet dogs and cars alone.
So … what can you do, here in the Otways, to help our Koalas:
- Dawn and dusk are the peak road-risk periods for Koala. If you sadly hit one, please call the 24/7 helpline: 0422 048 557.
- Suggestion: tape the helpline number to your dashboard.
- Never allow your dog to harass a Koala … like kangaroos, they are highly vulnerable to ‘stress-induced myopathy’, a usually fatal muscle ‘meltdown’ – rhabdomyolysis. In addition, even minor dog bites can cause fatal infection.
- Land-clearing must be performed with care and requires a prior Koala location survey.
- Replace old or diseased trees with Koala preferred species endemic to your area: see www.savethekoala.com/about-koalas/trees-koalas
- Koalas unable or unwilling to climb, or found sitting on the ground, are likely unwell or injured. Please call the helpline for advice, assessment and – if necessary – transport to a vet.
- Heat stress results in dehydration, organ damage, burnt paws, and/or abnormal behaviour. Nocturnal animals [like Koalas] on the ground in daylight, sitting at the base of a tree, drinking from water sources, lethargic, or unresponsive, all indicate distress.
- Save www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/images/fact-sheets/17%20-%20Koalas.pdf and the Surfcoast Wildlife Rescue helpline number: 0422 048 557 to your smartphone contacts. The website info-sheet will help you start your ‘care encounter’.
John Agar
