This girl is named Billie. I've never seen her on the property, but she is nearly always just across the road. That shows that koalas really do have definite home ranges of their own.
You can see she has a matching collar to Jordan as she is part of the same study. We think she is a bit old and she had no joey this year. Maybe this influences how far she moves about.
I got to go out tracking them down again this week and we found Billie not terribly far away from Jordan. The week before they were found sitting in the same tree ... mmmmm maybe she will have another joey for next year?
Thank you for the awesome comments and questions on my photos.
@gardenfolk@ludwigsdiana@kgolab@haskar@vignouse I can assure you the collar is fitted correctly.
I think because koalas have such a thick coat you don't see how very thin their necks actually are. I'm sure they are not fantastic to wear, but I've been observing a number of koalas in this study now, from the moment of collaring onwards, and they display no behaviour that indicates the collar annoys them - they do not shake their heads, attempt to scratch or pull at it, they sit and sleep in their normal positions, and they move completely normally. This is right from the moment they are released with the collar on.
The fur bulging around the edges of the collar are not an indication it is tight :)
Thank you all for comments of concern about the animals, we are monitoring them by physically locating them frequently, and noting their breathing, height in the tree (they are all climbing normally), as well as location data.
The collar does look a little uncomfortable to us, but I did notice that in every photo where you can see them the koalas seemed perfectly fine- so I assumed as you said that the fur actually masked how small their necks are. It must be interesting to learn a little more about their movements with these tracking devices. Billie looks like she has a sweet disposition. Good shot!
October 12th, 2019
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I think because koalas have such a thick coat you don't see how very thin their necks actually are. I'm sure they are not fantastic to wear, but I've been observing a number of koalas in this study now, from the moment of collaring onwards, and they display no behaviour that indicates the collar annoys them - they do not shake their heads, attempt to scratch or pull at it, they sit and sleep in their normal positions, and they move completely normally. This is right from the moment they are released with the collar on.
The fur bulging around the edges of the collar are not an indication it is tight :)
Thank you all for comments of concern about the animals, we are monitoring them by physically locating them frequently, and noting their breathing, height in the tree (they are all climbing normally), as well as location data.