The koalas of Cape Otway in Victoria were literally eating themselves out of their habitat, prompting the State Government to employ a "tree change" by shifting healthy animals to a new home near Lorne on the surf coast.
The rich, green leaves of the coastal Mana Eucalypt are devoured by koalas. The foliage is life-sustaining but rapidly disappearing, courtesy of the insatiable appetites of the colony which occupies the 200-hectare habitat.
Mandy Watson is a senior biodiversity officer with the State’s Department of Sustainability and Environment and says the predicament is dire.
“They'll just continue to eat until the trees are completely killed and at which point the koalas have got nowhere to go so they start to lose condition and they die,” Ms Watson said.
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The department introduced a program to rectify the problem. Trained catchers deliver the koalas to a bustling assessment centre, manned by an experienced vet and several vet science students. There, the koalas are given a thorough health assessment – healthy animals are microchipped, the females de-sexed and those deemed unable to live a safe and healthy life are euthanased.
Vet Rob Suter said the health of many of the older animals is failing due to the lack of nutrition and competition for coveted Mana gum leaves.
“Most of them have other co-existing injuries - arthritis in their joints or they've already lost some teeth and are less able to cope with what would be a very stressful time moving to a new environmnent,” Dr Suter said.
Orphaned young are sent to wildlife sanctuaries around the state, and those deemed suitable for relocation are taken to a new 40,000-hectare forest a two-hour drive away, near Lorne on Victoria’s surf coast.
The new habitat provides the koalas with access to three varieties of eucalypts and far more foliage - with a proposed density of just one animal per hectare, it's a significant improvement on the 20-per hectare ratio at Cape Otway.
To date, 401 adult koalas have been captured, 162 females de-sexed and 354 successfully translocated.
The delicate process of releasing the koalas is undertaken by trained volunteers, who carefully coax the koalas out of the transport crates into their new home.
Volunteer Tehree Gordon regards her role in releasing the native animals as an early Christmas present.
“To see the babies moving around with their mothers...to listen to the mothers talking to their babies and also to hear the males and the young males calling through the bush - that's my reward,” Ms Gordon said.
