I joined our driver & guide Paul and 6 Americans, whom I had met at dinner last evening, at 7.50am for our 10-hour Nature Tour, to the western end of the island.
Our first stop was close to Vivonne Bay (See map) where in a stand of their favourite variety of Eucalyptus trees, we found two females, one with a baby and a large male feeding in the trees.
Tasmania has never had a naturally occurring Koala population, and there are no fossil records to suggest they ever lived there. Today, koalas in Tasmania are classified as a "controlled animal" under the Nature Conservation Act 2002, meaning their introduction or release is tightly regulated.
An environmental risk assessment has concluded that Koalas would represent an extreme threat to Tasmania's ecosystem if they were to establish a wild population because they are very fussy eaters and will only eat leaves of 4 out of the 40 varieties of Eucalyptus to be found in Tasmania. At the moment Koalas are restricted to the western end of Tasmania. If the Koala population was allowed to breed unrestricted, they would quickly decimate their food sources in the west and the eastern end of Tasmania has very few of their favourite Eucalyptus trees.
Another interesting fact is that when a baby is ready to be weaned its mother exudes a special 'pap' poo that contains the enzymes and bacteria that will enable the baby's digestive system to cope with the low nutrition of the Eucalyptus leaves.
One of the female koalas and her baby can be seen sleeping in the fork of the tree.
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