Island Koalas: Meet Orbit

Little Orbit meets his admirers

Greetings again from St. Bees Island! We have some great news. Some time ago I reported that Elizabeth, the female koala we have been tracking for the longest time, had a baby in her pouch (see Island Koalas: A New Season). I have been very keen to find her again and see whether I could examine her baby before it left her for good. I am happy to announce that we have a new member of the koala group on “The Knoll,” and his name is Orbit!
We were heading up to the very top of the knoll, where Elizabeth can usually be found, tracking her radio signal when one of the volunteers shouted, “I can see one.” There was a pause and then “She has a baby on her back.” I was excited, because I was hoping to find Elizabeth healthy and with her young, and there she was, in a 33-foot (10-meter) blue gum, looking down at us…with a small furry face peering over her shoulder as well.

We were able to encourage her down the tree using our usual flag-waving technique; we simply wave rags and plastic bags (attached to long poles) above the koala’s head while remaining very quiet below. Distracted (and probably annoyed), the koala descends the tree and we grab it when it is low enough. On this occasion we got two for one, with the little koala attaching himself to one of the volunteer’s legs (fortunately long pants were worn) when we placed Mum in a bag.

Elizabeth has put on weight since her last capture, which is interesting, considering she has to carry the extra weight of a young koala around all day and night. She was in very good condition, which is great news since she is over nine years old. Orbit (her baby) weighs about 28 ounces (800 grams) right now and will probably stay with her for a few more months. Elizabeth has had mostly male babies, and this was another one.

We replaced Elizabeth’s VHF collar with one of the GPS collars we received through the San Diego Zoo’s Ocelots program funding, so now we will be able to monitor her movement every four hours for the next five months, even when we are not at St. Bees. During this trip we’ve deployed ten such collars, six on females and four on males.

After examining Elizabeth and Orbit, we set them free and they climbed back up the tree to resume resting and eating, with Orbit clinging on to his Mum’s back. It was a great day for us, but I guess the little koala is wondering what it was all about.

Bill Ellis is a Clark Endowed Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research.