Comments on: Koalas ride the gale on St Bees Island http://pulseplanet.com/sci-diaries/sd_melzer/koalas Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:02:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: Alistair Melzer http://pulseplanet.com/sci-diaries/sd_melzer/koalas/comment-page-1#comment-167 Alistair Melzer Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:16:56 +0000 http://pulseplanet.com/sci-diaries/?p=317#comment-167 Hello Jim, I'm just back from the western trip. I'll give an account of that shortly. With regard to the dissapearence of the young koalas - well, we have no more insights yet. My current thought is that the young are being displaced during the males attempts to mate with their mothers - or that the mums are weaning some young too early. My colleague, Bill Ellis,did observe an adult male with a dependent back young clinging to its shoulders. This suggests that the young can be confused as who to hang on to when the activity gets too rough. There are a few observations of this in zoos too. Do you mean removing goats? Well that is a polite way of saying "killing the goats". They are shot by helicopter and by ground teams - all trained sharpshooters. Apparently the process is highly regulated with oversight from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty, Australia. Alistair Hello Jim,
I’m just back from the western trip. I’ll give an account of that shortly. With regard to the dissapearence of the young koalas - well, we have no more insights yet. My current thought is that the young are being displaced during the males attempts to mate with their mothers - or that the mums are weaning some young too early. My colleague, Bill Ellis,did observe an adult male with a dependent back young clinging to its shoulders. This suggests that the young can be confused as who to hang on to when the activity gets too rough. There are a few observations of this in zoos too.

Do you mean removing goats? Well that is a polite way of saying “killing the goats”. They are shot by helicopter and by ground teams - all trained sharpshooters. Apparently the process is highly regulated with oversight from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty, Australia.

Alistair

]]> By: Jim http://pulseplanet.com/sci-diaries/sd_melzer/koalas/comment-page-1#comment-164 Jim Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:44:51 +0000 http://pulseplanet.com/sci-diaries/?p=317#comment-164 Alistair: Have there been any new insights into what is responsible for the disappearance of adolescent koalas? You mention the removal of koalas. Does that mean that they were relocated from the island? If so, where were they sent? Jim Alistair:
Have there been any new insights into what is responsible for the disappearance of adolescent koalas?

You mention the removal of koalas. Does that mean that they were relocated from the island? If so, where were they sent?

Jim

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