New neighbour

[Peter Ward]

To our amazement this little guy moved in across the road from us.

I had never seen a Koala in the wild, so having one in the tree line of our street made it even more special.

It's however sad that human activities are threatening so many species.

He's been in the wars, missing an eye and has a nasty gouge in his left cheek.
Hope he stays a while

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Might be an idea to get wildlife to come and check on him if he appears worse for wear

[glend (Glen)]

Might have tangled with a dog. As suggested, a call to Wires or a Koala hospital sound like it might help the species survive. The Shire is no place for him sadly.

[Peter Ward]

Wires/National parks have already checked him out (that's how we know he is a male) .

Apparently he has been here for a while, with droppings and claw marks in local tree trunks that stake out his claim.

Their urban camo makes their difficult to spot, but it's uber cool to know we have one literally across the road.

[Kal (Andrew)]

That's cool! Now theres another use for those optics

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

Amazing experience seeing them in the wild. When I was posted to RAAF Williamstown (near Newcastle NSW) in the mid 90's you would regularly see them even on the Airforce base which kept a detailed register of all Koala's on the base and if they had babies.

I was living on the base at the time and had a male park itself in the tree just a couple of metres from my window .. he bellowed for 2 hours. I had had enough and opened the window and told him he hadn't scored a female in 2 hours and suggested he try another tree. He stopped .. looked at me ... climbed down and wandered off to another tree where upon I could hear him in the distance continuing his mating call.

If you have never heard a male Koala bellow .. this it what it sounds like.

https://youtu.be/ocIR6B-YtYE

So .. savour the experience. Sadly I think it will be a rare experience in the future as human urbanisation kills off their habitat.

And for a bit of a laugh

https://youtu.be/-by5gew8OHM

[leon]

Hi Peter, I have to agree it is nice to have these creatures living best they can in urban areas, hope he improves soon.

We happen to be house sitting just out of Warrnambool on 5 acres and these two happily play on the property.

Leon

[AdamJL]

wow that's awesome Leon Enjoy it mate!

and how lucky are you, Peter. What luck to have such wonderful creatures in your neighbourhood.

I used to get woken up by honking sea eagles when we lived in our old apartment. It's not the same, but gosh I'd love that sound. Best alarm clock ever. Would always wake up with a smile.

[leon]

And just this morning I was out gardening and so was the Cat, the
story is in the pics, enjoy

Leon

[By.Jove (Jove)]

Now that's a big mouse !