Another koala

Koala

A Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is an uncommon visitor to the Flowerdale-Strath Creek area, but we do get reports of sightings from time to time. This one was photographed by Don on Upper King Parrot Creek Road. It doesn’t show in the photo, but the koala had a blue ear-tag which we think means it was one of a group transferred from French Island and released into Mt. Disappointment State Forest in 2004 – click on From French Island to Flowerdale to see an earlier post about the translocation (and a really cute photo!).

We spotted another koala trotting along the Whittlesea-Yea Road on Junction Hill late afternoon a few weeks ago – a very dangerous spot for a koala! But with a guard rail and double lines there was no way of stopping to try and herd it into the roadside vegetation.

It is good to know there are some koalas around, as they would have had little hope of escaping the Black Saturday fires and those that survived would have struggled to avoid starvation before fresh growth was established on eucalypt trees.