Spring is coming, but it’s not all roses for our koalas.
As the weather warms, the bush erupts in a frenzy of dating, mating, nesting and babies, with bird calls, koala bellows and possum grunts heard day and night. There is a rush to claim good nesting sites, and once the babies are born, keeping them fed is a Herculean task.
Our iconic superb fairy wrens employ a fascinating tactic to meet this challenge, with each older breeding pair supported by their offspring from previous seasons. The family builds a nest collectively, defends it, and feeds the hatchlings. During the autumn and winter, disparate groups of wrens combine to form supergroups. This gains them a larger territory to seek out limited food sources and greater protection from predators. In the spring they disband and return to their family’s home range to gorge on the flush of tiny insects and seeds. Just to spice things up (and keep bird researchers busy), males mate outside the family group, which presumably prevents inbreeding. Younger males don’t sprout their vivid blue plumage, or mate, until Dad falls off the perch.
This is also the season when mature male koalas are out looking for love, while younger males are leaving Mum to stake out their own territory. This turf war brings them down to ground level, where they are vulnerable to car strikes and dog attacks. These hits are catastrophic, and most injured koalas are ultimately euthanized.
Our national wildlife road toll is estimated at a staggering 10 million animals a year. It’s no surprise that driving through the bush can feel like entering a warzone. Just last week, a healthy female wombat with a tiny pouch bub was killed on a quiet road—really a glorified driveway—in our area. Car speed is the primary problem, and digital signage boards can be effective. When installed at two hotspots on Bells Line of Road last spring there were no koala strikes. They have just been re-installed at those sites.
But if wildlife isn’t enough to slow you down, consider the safety of those you love. A significant 5% of human road deaths in Australia are the result of animal collisions, so let’s make a spring a time of joy for us and the wildlife that call the Wollemi National Park area home.
