ILUKA KOALAS

Some years ago, there was a vibrant koala colony around Iluka, but bushfires, disease, dogs and expansion of human activity drastically reduced their numbers.

With no reported sightings for several years it was thought the population had died out, and koalas were deemed to be functionally extinct from Iluka. But then records by WIRES Clarence Valley branch began to rekindle interest, and further ecological studies showed them to be returning, albeit in very small numbers.

Tragically one or two were road deaths, and some beyond help, so unable to be returned. However more lately koalas have been reported, mainly from around the golf course, the conservation reserve,  Sid Gill Park, Iluka Road, and in more unexpected places like Moriarty's break wall, from where it was relocated by WIRES, on a cafe verandah, and in a resident's garage.

Photographs taken by Iluka's keen koala spotters have shown these animals to be mainly in good health, so able to be left to do what koalas are designed to do.

Recently a cyclist spotted a koala cross the Iluka Road into bushland, where it climbed a small tree then sat a convenient 2m off the ground, so enabling a good close look. The resident then called Clarence Valley WIRES, and reported the koala to be an adult male, suffering from an injured or diseased left eye.

Unfortunately he disappeared before help could arrive. So residents are now urged to keep a look out for this koala, which could be in severe trouble if the eye problem is a chlamydia-related disease.

WIRES are also calling for Iluka residents as well as visitors to the area, to report all koala sightings, whether apparently healthy or not, for recording on the NSW Wildlife Atlas, or for capture and treatment where possible of sick or injured animals by experienced WIRES koala rescuers and carers, before hopefully their safe return to their usual surroundings.

Even a koala high in a tree will add to the knowledge of their range

For any sightings please notify the WIRES Threatened Species Reporting Officer (0456 689 134)

- Patricia Edwards

 This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on September 25, 2017. 

NOTE: Iluka is on the northern side of the mouth of the Clarence River.

LIZZIE'S STORY

In December last year WIRES (Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service) was called to help a small koala found at Waterview Heights   with a bad case of conjunctivitis.

Lizzie weighed 3kg, but while quite thin and underweight the size of her head and her sharp little teeth showed her to be still very young, probably not long having left her mother and already running into trouble.

Waterview (a rural residential area west of Grafton) is a known hotspot for koalas where residents look out for them and keep them safe. But koala food trees are limited in the urban setting and a young koala can have difficulty finding unoccupied habitat for itself. Also this was a time of protracted drought, when smatterings of rain were doing nothing to raise the moisture in the leaves koalas' depend on. As the summer temperatures rose, so did the number of koalas coming down from the trees, severely dehydrated, empty-gutted, and most unable to be saved.

Lizzie's vet examination showed her to be free of urogenital chlamydia, which usually means cysts and euthanasia for female koalas. An ultrasound check showed her kidneys to be normal, and blood tests and swab samples proved her only problem to be the ocular chlamydia and corneas severely altered by the infection.

Being young and viable Lizzie was accepted for the costly treatment and started on a 28 day course of injections and eye treatments. Quite early on it looked likely her sight might be saved, but still there was a long battle ahead to save her. A finicky eater from the start she never seemed hungry, her hydration levels were difficult to maintain and on hot days she would stop eating altogether. The majority of harvestable leaves were from trees that had suffered a disastrous fire a few months earlier, so were young epicormic growth, low in protein.

Lizzie ready for release

Lizzie was started on koala milk, which predictably she turned her nose up at, but with a small drop of eucalypt oil and a pinch of high protein powder added she took to guzzling it very nicely. Then for a day or two she would start to pick up, before another searing day knocked her down again. In time she started lapping water, which made things easier, but she would never look for it and would drink only if it was put under her nose. When the forecast predicted above 32 degs temperatures she was back in her hospital cage in the cool bathroom.

In more ways than one though this little girl was different to the rest. She became the first koala in our branch to be cared for locally through the full chlamydia treatment to its clearance, and her eventual release.

Previously, with no knowledgeable koala vet in Grafton and the wildlife hospitals an inaccessible distance away in Queensland, our branch practice was to rely heavily on the wonderful staff of the Lismore Friends of Koala group and their almost-specialist koala vet at the Keen Street clinic. When a koala was delivered there, it stayed there, with the vet on tap and a team of volunteers to gather trailer loads of leaves and administer treatments, and long experience to help the koalas safely through their ordeal

This time though, with our environmentalist-trained vet Ray Barnett ready to help, the arrival into the Valley of WIRES' State Koala Coordinator for morale support, and a sudden access to the Sydney University's new Koala Heath Hub for medications, specimen testing and free support to koala carers everywhere, things took on a different slant. With suitable care and pre-release facilities at Shannondale it was decided we could take her through ourselves.

It was never easy. Collecting armloads of beautiful fresh leaves every evening, only to see them thrown out untouched the next evening was upsetting and worrying. But still Lizzie managed to slowly eke back some of the weight she had lost, until final tests cleared her of chlamydia and she was ready for pre-release. Now, with a tree of her own to climb and eat from and a few supplementary leaves from different species to pick at, she stayed comfortably sheltered in the pen until the weather finally cooled and a first good rain shower brought that light at the end of the tunnel. After 3 months in care Lizzie had gained only 1kg in weight, but she was eating better, looked healthy, and it was decided nothing more could be done for her. She was taken out of her pen that evening and left silouetted against the evening sky in the arms of an old swamp mahogany tree.

Lizzie released

Whether she is a success or not we most likely will never know. But the very best we can ever do is give them a second chance at life. The rest is up to her. Good luck little Lizzie, you have had quite a journey.

- Pat Edwards, Clarence Valley WIRES Koala Coordinator

CLARENCE KOALA PETA - A SUCCESS STORY AND A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE

In February a small koala with a broken leg was picked up by a motorist on the Black Mountain Road near the Nymboi-Binderay National Park. At just 2.8kg, barely ready to leave her mother, the little koala was in a sorry state and would have died fairly quickly had she not been immediately taken to Ray Barnett's Clarence Valley Vet Clinic in Grafton.

WIRES was called, and little Peta, named after her rescuer, was X-rayed by Ray Barnett under a general anaesthetic and given a thorough checkup in contact with the Queensland Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. That same afternoon, still comfortably sleeping, she was transferred to Friends of Koala in Lismore, and by next morning was in surgery with the world's leading koala vets at the Australian Wildlife Hospital (AWH).

Peta in care at the Australian Wildlife Hospital

There Peta stayed for the next six months, lending herself well to captive care, gaining in weight, strength and agility as she underwent therapy and gathering the hearts of all who met her. This included the journalists of Australian Geographic, whose website now includes a video of Peta patiently undergoing her daily workouts.

Finally, her limp gone and able to climb again with confidence, Peta was given the all clear by AWH director, Rosie Booth to return home.

A release site was chosen not far from where she was found, and last weekend Peta was returned to her hinterland mountain home. Last seen she was munching contentedly in one of her favourite food trees to the notes of the bell-birds she had grown up with.

 

Peta in a forest she-oak after her return to the wild

Aside from a lovely success story, Peta has also furthered our knowledge of koalas' food preferences. While in care, apart from occasional forest red gum leaves, she would eat nothing but Allosuarina torulosa, commonly known as forest she-oak.

Although on some lists as a supplementary or secondary food source, the value of this non-eucalypt species has largely been ignored. Until now, one small koala has highlighted the point that it might well be an invaluable link between the primarily preferred forest red gums of the coast, and the river red gums of the inland across the koalas' range.

- Patricia Edwards

 This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on August 22, 2016.

CHLAMIDIA VACCINE TRIALS BRING HOPE FOR KOALAS

Chlamydia is a serious debilitating disease that can be fatal to koalas. In the Clarence Valley the most common symptom of the disease is ocular conjunctivitis, where one or both eyes become watery, gummy and increasingly inflamed, to a point where the koala is blinded by the swollen membrane. Urine-stained wet fur around the tail-end is also a sign of a urogenital form of the disease, which is related to infertility, uterine and ovarian cysts in females, and death.

All koala populations carry the chlamydia bacterium: however the actual onset of disease is triggered by chronic stress. Each year large numbers of koalas die through vehicle collisions, domestic animal attacks, habitat destruction and fragmentation by land-clearing and logging; and from starvation and thirst where moisture and nutrients are removed from eucalypt leaves by drought. However any koala that survives the initial trauma will inevitably suffer an onset of chlamydia, sounding its death knell if left untreated.

This means that if chlamydia can only be targeted and eliminated, koala populations will have a much better chance of stabilisation and survival in the wild (Rhodes et al., 2011). To target chlamydia therefore is the obvious option, and research has been underway for some time in developing an effective vaccine.

Now the outcome is looking excitingly positive. While some work still needs to be done, vaccinations performed on both healthy and diseased koalas are providing strong evidence that a chlamidial vaccine will be successful.

Vaccination trials currently underway in SE Queensland will shortly be moving outside that state, and from captive animals to wild koalas. These will include koalas taken into care by wildlife care groups within NSW. Dr Adam Polkinghorne of Queensland University of Technology states that the work and collaboration of the latter groups will be essential to the success of this koala chlamydia vaccine.

Happily this will mean that koalas brought into care by Clarence Valley WIRES will also be taking part in this exciting, groundbreaking research to save our iconic marsupial.

- Patricia Edwards

Koala in care.  Rusty brown fur indicates poor health.