What to do if you see a koala on the move this spring

Spring’s warm weath­er is per­fect for explor­ing South Aus­tralia and it’s also when many of our native wildlife are on the move.

Koalas are at their most mobile in the warmer months, with both sex­es look­ing for mates and young males try­ing to claim territory.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly this is the time of year when we start to see more koalas being hit by cars, so if you’re dri­ving in an area with lots of native trees it’s best to slow down.

Breed­ing sea­son also means koalas are more vocal, and you might be sur­prised by what you hear.

Males bel­low to let females know they’re around and to warn off com­pe­ti­tion, so you may hear koalas even if you don’t see them. A male koala bel­low sounds like a cross between a pig and a hip­popota­mus and seems too loud to come from an ani­mal of that size.

Ter­ri­to­r­i­al fights between males can also be quite ter­ri­fy­ing with a lot of scream­ing, scratch­ing and bit­ing involved. Just as loud, female koalas can have a pierc­ing squeal.

Spring koala tips

• It’s impor­tant to keep dogs under con­trol – for the safe­ty of the dog as well as the koala. Although dogs’ teeth can do koalas a lot of harm, koalas have long, strong claws that they will use to defend them­selves if threat­ened which pose real risks for the dog as well.

• Koalas reg­u­lar­ly vis­it sub­ur­ban gar­dens. If they can get in they can usu­al­ly get out again unassisted.

• As the weath­er warms up, koalas often sit in non-native trees to con­trol their body tem­per­a­ture. Euro­pean vari­eties tend to be cool­er than eucalypts.

• Males can have a dark mark on their chest – this is a scent gland they use to mark ter­ri­to­ry and is per­fect­ly normal.

• If you see a koala on the ground for an extend­ed peri­od of time, a koala that appears to be injured, or a young joey with­out its moth­er, go on to Google and search for your local fau­na res­cue group.

Want to know how else you can help native wildlife? Read our blogs: Tips for res­cu­ing injured or orphaned wildlife and How to help native ani­mals in hot weath­er.

This sto­ry was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in Sep­tem­ber 2015.