Comments on: Koalas: Floating Research Station

By: Bill Ellis

Bill Ellis — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:59:15 +0000

That is a really good question njr_sd, and that is what we are doing at the moment. We have been gathering the DNA fingerprints of all the koalas on St Bees Island and are using this information to examine their breeding behavior. We have also found some interesting results when comparing the DNA of the koalas from each of the islands we have looked at. I’ll be presenting some of this information when I visit the Beckman Centre in July, and we will have it written up by the end of the year. So far, we have found that the St Bees Island koalas are genetically quite diverse – more so than most Victorian populations for example, and more so than the only naturally occurring Queensland Island population. It looks like the koalas on the other islands came from the same source population as St Bees, but we are still not 100% sure about that. So, you’ve hit on one of our “hot topics” there!
Cheers
Bill

By: Bill Ellis

Bill Ellis — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:49:35 +0000

Hi Shirley,
Yes, it is really interesting to see the koalas on the islands, but koalas do swim, so perhaps that is how they got to the islands that are close to the mainland. However, since Nigel has not crossed to Rabbit Island from his home on Newry Island, perhaps they only swim if they really need to. It is also interesting that no koalas have ever swum from St. Bees to Keswick Island, even though it is only about a quarter of a mile.
I hope we catch up with The Hurricane soon too, although he’s a bit of a handful to deal with!
Cheers
Bill

By: njr_sd

njr_sd — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:30:29 +0000

Has anyone done a genetic study on these island koalas to see or how closely they might be related?

By: Shirley Sykes

Shirley Sykes — Sat, 02 May 2009 00:55:24 +0000

It’s a fascinating mystery how they get to these islands. I don’t think they swim, so could it be extra low tides ??? It’s good they weren’t affected by the horrendous wildfires that ravaged the Koalas in the more southern area of the mainland. I hope you will eventually find and re-collar The Hurricane (what a great name for a cuddly-looking but very LOUD, aggressive male koala!). Keep up the good work you are doing, and thanks for all of it!