Koalas eating themselves out of house and home

Recently I spoke to some local residents along the Great Ocean Road near Wye River and Kennett River and found they’re worried about too many Koalas. How can that be? Not that don’t love the little critters, they do, but they are worried that too many Koalas may in time lead to too few. And that’s a shame for the Koalas, the residents in the towns and our many visitors.

For example some of Victoria’s National Parks are under serious pressure from Koala over-browsing. Mount Eccles National Park now has areas where Koalas have eaten all the leaves off Manna gums to the point where the trees die. And when this happens the Koalas themselves are in danger of starvation. This happened some time ago in areas like French Island and Stony Point.

When walking along some of our local tracks we can see dead trees in areas where there are hundreds of Koalas. Are the trees dying due to overbrowsing or drought? It’s hard to say.

The Parks people do have a Koala Conservation Strategy which includes surgical sterilisation and locating Koalas to other areas. A contraceptive trial is currently on at Mount Eccles National Park, where the aim is to treat as many fertile female koalas as possible with slow-release contraceptive implants.
Hopefully it will make a difference and if successful can ensure Koalas along our coast don’t eat themselves “out of house and home”.