By Tyler Wright
A sick koala is receiving veterinary care at a Mount Evelyn based wildlife shelter after being found in the greater Woori Yallock area on Saturday 20 May.
Bungalook Creek Wildlife Shelter operator Emma Cash said she found the koala, now named Wesley, huddled on the ground at around midnight after a group of young children reported seeing the animal.
Ms Cash said the creature was displaying “really abnormal behaviour”.
“It had been raining…when I went to get him, he didn’t respond to me at all, which, again, is not a great sign,” Ms Cash said.
“We never recommend people touch koalas because they can be quite vicious. They’ve got claws that are designed to climb up trees and you can imagine what that would do trying to climb up your leg.”
Rescuers picked Wesley up in a towel, before he was put into a specialist koala carrier and taken to the shelter, where he is now receiving veterinary care.
Results will determine whether he can return to full health and be released back into the wild, or if he will live out his days in the care of wildlife carers at the shelter.
“We gave him some fluids really carefully… we let him lap some water up, which he readily did, which for most other animals wouldn’t be a massive concern, [but] for a koala, that’s really big warning bells going off,” Ms Cash said.
“They don’t generally want free water, they get a lot of their water concentration from the gum leaves that they eat.”
Ms Cash said the shelter does not often rescue diseased koalas, with many instead found with end-stage renal failure.
“As a shelter, we’ve been running the shelter now for just on 17 years, and we probably get a koala in every two years,” she said.
“It’s actually a really good sign that our population is stable.”
The shelter is looking for eucalyptus trees with fresh new growth from properties in the surrounding suburbs of Mount Evelyn, Montrose, Kalorama, Silvan and Seville to feed Wesley.
“He’s super active when the fresh browse goes in. He loves looking around to see what there is, and it’s really important for him to have stimulation while we wait on these test results and see if we can get some weight back onto him, so if we can release him, then we can get him out in the healthiest condition that he can be,” Ms Cash said.
According to Ms Cash, there are pockets of koala populations around the Yarra Ranges, with residents able to plant native trees and bushes to create habitat for various types of native species.
“It’s super important that if someone does see a koala on the ground or on their property that they get their dogs away because it can be catastrophic, the attacks that occur with koalas and any species of animals.
“If there’s a possum on the ground, don’t let your dog go play with it. If there’s a kangaroo that’s coming to your backyard, bring your dogs in and just let them keep going. That’s the golden rule for any of our native wildlife. “
