My name's Nick De Vos and I'm a Unit Supervisor for the Australian Fauna Precint
at Taronga Zoo. Behind me is 42 acres of my property that is at
potential risk - you know, we've had fires within ten kilometers from here
so, you know, by no means are we out of harm's way here.
These bush fires, understandably, have had a huge impact on people. Working the Zoo,
you know, I'm an hour and a half away so if there is a fire I can't exactly be here
instantly, so I've set up a series of irrigation sprinklers throughout the
property that I can actually turn on from wherever I am, from my phone.
What we don't often consider is how devastating it is for the wildlife you
know, particularly for koalas. You know, living at the top of the trees they're
'obligate folivores' so they're living in the tops of the eucalypts. You know, if
you know anything about eucalypt, it's full of oil that's highly flammable
so they are a species that is impacted significantly due to fire. If we've had
warning so if the leaf cell of the tree starts to dry out koalas will actually
move to lower parts of the valleys - not because of a fire, but they need water in
their leaves and so they'll do that by default. If they have enough time that
can potentially protect small pockets of habitat for koalas but with the level of
fire that we've had, how volatile it is the areas that have been hit have
been hit so quickly, that hasn't happened. It is truly a devastating situation that
we're in right now. I've worked with koalas for nearly 23 years now and I
think the thing that drew me to them was that - on the surface, you know, they may
seem to be quite a simple animal - you know, they sleep 19 hours a day, they eat
they eat eucalyptus and that's about it, it might seem, but the reality is that
they're one of the most complex animals to actually look after - there's so much
about koalas that, certainly on the surface, isn't evident. At Taronga we've
actually put together a series of holding enclosures for incoming animals
initially we actually set up six areas for potential burn victims from our
Hawkesbury population of koalas and what ended up happening is the
weather changed and Science for Wildlife were actually able to access
a genetically critical population in Kanangra-Boyd National Park and so what
we've done is we've actually taken on 12 of those animals that the volunteers
from Science for Wildlife were able to acquire. The challenges in housing koalas
is primarily feeding them. You know everyone thinks a eucalypt's a
eucalypt but koala certainly doesn't. What we've learnt over the years is that
eucalypts, within the species as well have different chemical fluctuations
depending on their elevation in which they germinate, times of year, there's
levels of stress and so obviously right now - a time of drought and bushfire a lot
eucalypts are in higher level of stress but the koalas that we've
actually taken on from the Kanangra region are actually at 1,100 meters
elevation so you know quite a substantial long way above the Sydney
basin where we're actually acquiring most of the 'browse' from so what we've
had to do is have a transitional period of acquiring browse from the locale that
they came from or at least as close as we could safely get to and then
progressively start to introduce species that we could acquire a little bit more
locally it comes with its challenges though you know like we're feeding each
of these animals around about five branches that are about 1800mm long so you
know it's a lot of work it's high resource and so I've taken on the the I
guess the role of acquiring that previous roles that I was in before I am
now actually used to cut leaf for koalas for 55 animals every day so I've honed
in the skill on identifying 'euc' species the ones that are appropriate for them
at the right time and I guess the ability to actually access it as well
today I'll actually go out and I'll cut around about 90 branches so I'm not
doing that in one spot so what it means is that even when I'm not out collecting
leaf anytime I'm in the car basically I drive sitting forward now
because I'm constantly just on the scout for food and and I'll mark it to memory
and I'll go "I'll be coming back here, you know, day after next". I'll look at
areas that I can see might be two to three weeks from being able to be
harvested and then again I'll just make note of that so today I'll actually be
heading down the hill tomorrow and and I'm hopeful to get a patch with
moluccana there that the koalas that were taken in and
you'd have shown some really promising science accepting that it's so vital
that we save the Koala as a species generally because of their role in in
habitat preservation so obviously koalas are loved by all you know we have
empathy for them we have genuine concern for that species and the reason that
it's so important to have them around is that if we want to protect their habitat
then by default we're protecting the habitat of everything that lives
underneath them that we may not think so much about we may not have you know that
I tug on the heartstrings koalas do that for everyone even those that don't
really know much about animals so I think their role is vital purely for
creating awareness of how important habitat is Turanga you know is currently
and has always been working with conservation partners to address some
short-term goals obviously to try and ensure the welfare and safety of
wildlife but obviously it's the long-term goals that we really need to
be kicking and we're working really hard towards that obviously what we want
being a conservation organization is certainly securing that shared future
and you know without it you know we would generally be at a loss I do have a
level of positivity rewards you know future for koalas but there's so much
work that needs to happen you know like we could do Bush regen for certain
species for creating flowering plants for birds in a fairly short timeframe to
regenerate and create koala habitat it's a 25-year plan you know so if we
start now we're not looking at in a viable habitat for the next 10 to 15
years and then it's not great until 25 years so it's a lot of work but it's not
too late you know there is already re-greening happening wildlife corridors
are being stated national parks that are being listed specifically for koala
conservation so you know it's not too late
but it's it's now that we need to act and we need to act seriously