My father emailed me during the week with photos of a koala in his garden. It's been a few years since he's had a koala, and this one wasn't very big, so he assumed it was a young one who had been pushed out by its parents and was establishing a new territory.
 |
| Photo courtesy of John Walter. |
The koala had an ear tag so Dad knew it must be being monitored by local scientists. He asked a few questions in the right places and suddenly the koala had a name and a known history.
It turns out it's a male, about ten years old (so not young at all), very under weight (a score of 4 out of 10 for condition and only weighing 6.3 kg) and had been in the rescue centre with conjunctavitis late last year. He was named Jethro.
 |
| Photo courtesy of John Walter. |
He had been picked up on the edge of town in the street that runs behind my parent's place by the animal rescue people in October last year and taken to the rescue centre. He was treated for chlamydia, cystitis and conjunctavitis in both eyes, as well as microchipped and given an ear tag. By December he was ready for release and is one of only two koalas out of nine that were taken in for treatment who made it back to their home range.
************************************************
For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.
We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos.
We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos.
10 comments:
Hi Jethro!
Do we know why he is underweight? Is it because of all his ailments or lack of eucalyptus leaves?
I suspect the underlying cause would be long drought, making his food source less abundant and less nutritious, and leading him to be susceptible to disease.
He says g'day back, obviously.
We enjoyed watching the programme about Longleat which regularly featured their koalas. What delightful animals, so gentle and endearing. Although my personal favourite was the armadillos. I would love to be able to hug both a koala and an armadillo at some point in my life.
You've clearly never lived within sight or earshot of rival male koalas! :-)
Oh, you pretty thing!
They are appealing animals, aren't they?!
I've run the gauntlet of the marauding yobs between the car park and the theatre in town on a Friday night. I imagine rival koalas would be less scary and I definitely know which one I would still like to hug!
LOL. Difficult to know which would be the most likely to wee on you :-)
Post a Comment