Jumping in for the six word story challenge early - this is a new koala, and he just looks so old and tired to me, a little moth eaten around the edges!
Thank you for the awesome messages of support and concern during these fires.
ANSWER to yesterday - RACEE when off for 3 days alone to give birth to her new tiny little pinky, which is about the size of a jelly bean, or a $1 coin. Woohoo the next generation of hope already!
Ooh ! he does look a little bedraggled and tired ,- what is the life expectancy of a koala ? Good news re Racee - hope all goes well for her and the new arrival !
@beryl they can live up to 20 years, but average good expectancy is 12-14. While we can only age a koala by checking wear on the molar teeth, it is safe to say this is not a young fella, and I'd bet he is well over 10 :)
@ludwigsdiana good question - it is an educated guess on my part by observing behaviour. Mothers only leave their joeys for very special reasons, and to be honest I didn't expect her to come back at all. But when I found her back, and weighed up her behaviour over the previous week or so, it made sense. We will be able to confirm all of this by what we see by the end of June/early July next year! I know you will remember this conversation and we can do the math together :)
@onewing I will by tomorrow - my facebook followers name them all. It starts with suggestions for a day (and did they flood in for this fella!), then I choose 2 or 3 that were suggested more than once, and now they are voting for a day to pick. The votes are on Bertie, Dunlop (for Weary Dunlop) and Gramps. It's a lot of fun but hectic!
Ian