That leaf really pops on black.
Phoenix is around 2 years old now and was born on the property. Her mum is Racee, who just recently gave birth to her fourth joey. Racee is the mum of Smokey, and some of you may remember a few years back her first joey was Karla.
Thank you for the lovely messages of support and concern during this time of fire and drought here.
I like the selective color the best on the leaf so far- nicely done! How long will Racee have children? Four seems like a lot- but maybe not! What is the average amount of joeys for a female koala?
@olivetreeann I have had one koala, Greta, who had her last joey at 14, so she possibly had a total of 11 or 12 joey's over her life. I did not get to observe her until she was 10 however so I'm guessing. I have not seen her this year, so I am presuming she has not made it through the drought conditions at such an age.
Also Mist was 12 last year and had just finished raising Krissy, when sadly chlamydia got a hold in her. I took her to the vet and we gave her a peaceful ending.
So they can produce for a surprisingly long time. They pretty much have a joey every year, one in pouch as they finish helping the one on back to be independent.
We say a wild koala lives an average of 8-12 years, so we would say they have an average of 6-10 joey's.
Let's hope Racee has a long life and produces somewhere up around the 10 or more :)
@koalagardens That is a lot of children! It would take a toll on a human mum but nature seems a bit stronger and better suited to it. Although, when our society was more agrarian, large families were quite common, so there's a lot to be said in favor of a more "natural" kind of lifestyle! Mark that down as a lesson we can learn from Koalas! smile.
@olivetreeann of course we have to remember that many of those 'children' don't survive to adulthood. Maybe not even to breed.
So it is imperative for them to have any chance of surviving, as their numbers decline so alarmingly fast, that they breed every year.
It was the same for humans when many children did not live to adults. I think we can learn a lot from them too, but it's really hard on the girls to be in this cycle constantly.
While the boys spend their time disputing ownership of territory - mmmm sound familiar? ;)
Also Mist was 12 last year and had just finished raising Krissy, when sadly chlamydia got a hold in her. I took her to the vet and we gave her a peaceful ending.
So they can produce for a surprisingly long time. They pretty much have a joey every year, one in pouch as they finish helping the one on back to be independent.
We say a wild koala lives an average of 8-12 years, so we would say they have an average of 6-10 joey's.
Let's hope Racee has a long life and produces somewhere up around the 10 or more :)
So it is imperative for them to have any chance of surviving, as their numbers decline so alarmingly fast, that they breed every year.
It was the same for humans when many children did not live to adults. I think we can learn a lot from them too, but it's really hard on the girls to be in this cycle constantly.
While the boys spend their time disputing ownership of territory - mmmm sound familiar? ;)
Ian