courtesy of Koala Clancy Foundation
There was a great turnout for the first Ocean Grove Coastcare event for 2023, with about 35 people attending the Koala talk.
And what a surprise! There are koalas on the Bellarine… just a few. Janine Duffy from the Koala Clancy Foundation is a wonderful storyteller who shared with us her incredible knowledge of koalas such as…
- female koalas are generally ‘cuter’ than male koalas
- the markings on their noses are like fingerprints and are used to identify different individuals
- increasing temperatures due to climate change are impacting eucalyptus leaves, making them more acidic and less palatable to koalas
Janine was encouraging the group to take tangible actions to improve the habitat for koalas on the Bellarine by recording sitings (via iNaturalist), planting lots of different types of trees and preserving the natural corridors we have.
Sophie Small, from Bellarine Landcare, shared some local stories and photos and discussed the work Bellarine Landcare is currently doing to increase koala habitat in targeted areas on the Bellarine.