Animal Diaries Archive

Winter blues

30 June 2006

With winter upon us now, the job of providing our koalas with suitable leaf becomes that much harder. As we all know, winter brings shorter days. This means the trees have less sun to help them grow. However, the major problem is not lack of sun, but winter frost. Frost not only damages the leaves (frost-bitten leaves are known as being burnt or blue), but also has the potential to kill the trees. Koalas are very fussy eaters and won't touch leaves which have been affected by the frost.

So the already difficult job of providing our koalas with fresh leaf becomes that little bit more difficult in the winter months. But with some more rain hopefully on the way, this time of hardship will only be short-lived. While we try our best to travel far and wide to find the best and least affected leaf and maintain our extensive plantations for our Zoo koalas, their wild counterparts aren’t so lucky. The koalas in the bush are really feeling it, having had so little rain this year. Please look out for our natives this winter and call a wildlife rescue centre if someone is in need of a little specialist care.