Member, Kathryn Kermode, has made a valuable contribution to Koalatracker.com.au. She has watched and documented a colony of koalas in her neighbourhood of Kyogle for some time now. Keeping track of them with the help of Koalatracker.com.au brings insight to the health of koalas on a regional basis, rather than along localised, state or electoral boundaries.
For a while now we have known that disease in Queensland is having a major impact on the koala population, with fatalities and infertility devastating some colonies. A widely held assumption has been that the populations in NSW and VIC are in much better health. What Kathryn's photographs particularly show, is that disease knows no boundaries.
Below is a photo gallery of some of the sick koalas in need of medical attention, that Kathryn has photographed around Kyogle. Click any image to enter the gallery. The story that accompanies these images follows.
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In Kathryn's words: On the Trail of Kyogle's Koalas
It is Christmas Eve 2009 and the humidity of the day is easing into the gentle coolness of the late afternoon. As I approach the turn off to Homeleigh Road I cannot resist the temptation to take the long way home, I am on the trail of the Koalas. As much as I enjoy the opportunity to watch the Koalas that live in the trees beside the road I also love being in this landscape, the expansive views to the Border Ranges home to Black Cockatoos, Lace Monitors, Bearded Dragons and the soaring pair of Wedge Tailed Eagles. I stop on the western ridge where the ancient multi-trunked grass trees stand beside Forest Red Gum and Tallowwood; a place where I often see Koalas.
The Koala has her head cocked and is listening to me rather than the usual casual glance from under sleepy eye lids which I have become accustomed to. I suspect there is something wrong, I zoom in and can see now that both her eyes are heavily caked and she cannot see, worse still for this female is her serious condition of cystitis or wet bottom as it is called in koalas. She is very sick. I name her Holly and wonder what I can do for her. She is 20m high and in a clump of trees on private property so catching her today is not an option. I alert the land owners and ask if they can keep an eye out for her.
Holly is only one of the koalas I have located and documented since the beginning of 2009. I currently have 53 Koalas on my database, from the beautiful and unusual chocolate brown Sooty and her joey Sweep, blind but agile Stevie, a gorgeous pale grey female I call Sam and my own resident female Sleepy, all are photographed and plotted on a map when I see them. And on Koalatracker.com.au, too.
Now I just need to work out a way to help the sick Koalas like Holly and Stevie who, while they remain free to roam in the forests of Homeleigh Mountain, will be suffering and infecting the remaining population.
If you look on the map (in the Member section), you can see Kathryn's wonderful photographs of koalas through Cawongla, Homeleigh and Kyogle. They are some of the most beautiful photographs of koalas in the wild I have seen. You can read more on Kathryn's work here.
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has to be seen to be believed - it is terrifying! Kath recorded seeing koalas in trees for an entire week, too traumatised to move. One joey was running frantically up and down the tree, freaked out. We fought this damned rally as hard as we could and we won.
Twelve environmental laws were overridden to bring in this rally that profitted international interests, certainly not our local area. It is with much sadness that I see these photos when previously these koalas were healthy. I'm sure the rally has encouraged
the rednecks to do their own home-version of the rally on the weekends or in the wee hours of the morning, as they did for months prior to the rally in 2009. I just wish there was a simple way to treat chlamydia in koalas .....besides in the early stages with
veterinary care.