July turned out to be another record breaking month at Koala Gardens on two levels.
The daily sightings count hit a record high of 192. Even more amazing was that there were 18 different individual adult koalas (so the 3 joeys starting to come out of pouches are on top of this number).
As you saw yesterday Jordan has been working hard as many of these have been males and some of them big fellas. There is a lot of pressure on the koalas as the amount of habitat in the region in general dwindles.
Hopefully we can see more landowners providing habitat in the coming years to turn this all around.
Thank you for the awesome comments and questions about the koalas and my photos.
What a wonderful set of data. It is a credit to you and the safe area you have there. I hope you have success spreading the idea to others in your area to allow the population to increase without overcrowding. Cheers Rob
What a beautiful capture and great news re your July record breaking numbers .- well done :) Just a thought- you out there counting Koalas while they suggest we count sheep to sleep !! ha ha ! Fav for a beautiful capture !
They know it is a welcoming place. Should be fun in August when the joeys come out more. I was going to say get more active, but do they ever get active?
@kchuk fighting is always a last resort. Much of it is done by sound (that male bellow) and scent. While the young males are juvenile and not yet sexually active they are mostly ignored if they stay out of the way.
Once they begin to mature, and for the boys that means developing that scent gland and their own musky smell, then the other males are going to notice them.
Not all males are alpha in base personality, just like any species. So males that are not trying to take over the colony kind of 'fly below the radar'. They usually have smaller scent glands.
As long as they don't push things, they get left alone.
Bullet has been around a lot less often the past couple of months and as you know there has been a lot of male activity going on - both in numbers and by that facial wound on Jordan. I suspect Bullet is laying fairly low, but I know he is not laying low here all the time.
Time will tell whether he is going to need to move on because his scent gland has really matured over the past 6 months as he has come into full maturity. He isn't really alpha material, but he's pretty darn male!
It's truly a huge problem with the fragmentation of their habitat. It is harder and harder for the lower ranking males.
great capture of this beauty
Once they begin to mature, and for the boys that means developing that scent gland and their own musky smell, then the other males are going to notice them.
Not all males are alpha in base personality, just like any species. So males that are not trying to take over the colony kind of 'fly below the radar'. They usually have smaller scent glands.
As long as they don't push things, they get left alone.
Bullet has been around a lot less often the past couple of months and as you know there has been a lot of male activity going on - both in numbers and by that facial wound on Jordan. I suspect Bullet is laying fairly low, but I know he is not laying low here all the time.
Time will tell whether he is going to need to move on because his scent gland has really matured over the past 6 months as he has come into full maturity. He isn't really alpha material, but he's pretty darn male!
It's truly a huge problem with the fragmentation of their habitat. It is harder and harder for the lower ranking males.