A young male koala is undergoing treatment at the Northern Rivers Koala Hospital after falling from rocks and taking an unexpected swim in Byron Bay.<\/p>\n
The incident has highlighted the challenges koalas face in the area, with a rapid rate of coastal urban development driving them into smaller pockets of forest.<\/p>\n
A fisherman found the damp and “subdued” koala sitting on rocks near a cliff face close to Wategos Beach on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Northern Rivers Koala Hospital veterinarian Kate Thomas said it seemed the koala had been in the ocean.<\/p>\n
“There were some unconfirmed reports from the fishermen that they did observe a koala swimming in the water a couple of days prior,” Dr Thomas said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A koala looks out to sea from rocks near Wategos Beach. (Supplied: Richard Nicholas)<\/p>\n
WIRES volunteer Mark Badgery was the first to reach him and said the koala “was a bit damp as he had swum in the water”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I had a koala bag with me and, as he was subdued, I was able to pick him up without any struggle,” he said.<\/p>\n
Another rescuer, Richard Nicholas from Friends of the Koalas, said the animal had minor injuries, including seawater ingestion.<\/p>\n
“They are not good swimmers and swallowing salt water can cause complications for them,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Nicholas said he believed the koala travelled along the beach to try to find a way back to bushland.<\/p>\n
“He was lucky he appeared where he did or he may have starved to death, as he had lost a lot of weight,” Mr Badgery said.<\/p>\n
The rescuers nicknamed him Little Watego.<\/p>\n
Age-old rivalry<\/p>\n
For many years, Mr Badgery has monitored the koala colony at The Pass, in the Walgun Cape Byron State Conservation Area, around the famous Cape Byron Lighthouse.<\/p>\n
He said he recognised Little Watego from his distinct nostril and lip markings as one of the joeys he had seen riding his mother’s back a year ago.<\/p>\n
Koala breeding season has begun, which Mr Badgery said meant older males were ejecting younger males from their territory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Little Watego clings to a palm tree to escape an aggressive older male in April. (Supplied: Mark Badgery)<\/p>\n
He said he had observed the alpha male attack the younger koala on three occasions.<\/p>\n
“I’ve got a photo of Little Watego hanging from a palm tree. The big alpha male was bullying him so he would fall from the trees and feel unwelcome.”<\/p>\n
“Arnie”, an alpha male, eyes off Little Watego. (Supplied: Mark Badgery)<\/p>\n
Linda Sparrow, co-founder of Bangalow Koalas, said rapid coastal urban development was driving koalas into smaller pockets of forest.<\/p>\n
“Sadly, there isn’t a lot of habitat along the coast there, where it’s not threatened or under development with lots of people and dogs,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been working with National Parks and the local council … to create a koala corridor.”<\/p>\n
Mr Badgery said The Pass koala colony needed more feed trees.<\/p>\n
“There’s not enough habitat for the amount of koalas who are there,” he said.<\/p>\n
Little Watego is getting close attention in hospital. (Supplied: Kate Thomas)<\/p>\n
Condition ‘improving’<\/p>\n
Dr Thomas said Little Watego was under close watch at the Northern Rivers Koala Hospital.<\/p>\n
“We are worried that he could get pneumonia as his x-rays and blood work indicated he had ingested salt water,” she said.<\/p>\n
“There is also bruising to his sternum, which means there is a good chance he has taken a fall from those rocks.”<\/p>\n
Little Watego has his vitals checked at Northern Rivers Koala Hospital after his surf ordeal. (Supplied: Northern Rivers Koala Hospital)<\/p>\n
She said tests showed his condition was “already improving” and the inflammation in his lungs had reduced.<\/p>\n
“We are now working with our release coordinator and rescue team to organise a suitable relocation site for his release,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A young male koala is undergoing treatment at the Northern Rivers Koala Hospital after falling from rocks and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[40996,41001,40993,40992,40998,40994,40999,5340,90,56,54,55,40995,40997,4407,41000],"class_list":["post-80448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-byron-bay","tag-friends-of-the-koalas","tag-habitat","tag-koala","tag-koala-habitat","tag-misadventure","tag-northern-rivers-koala-hospital","tag-ocean","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wategos","tag-wategos-beach","tag-wildlife","tag-wires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}