Koala Food Production
Life in the Field
This article is part of a series. To read part one, click here.
The style of field cutting and collecting food has a huge impact on the overall health and wellbeing of a koala. A cutter's job is to ensure that koalas feel completely comfortable and at home in a captive environment. The aim is to provide koalas with food and enrichment that not only replicates their surroundings in the wild, but hones their natural instincts, senses and behaviours to guarantee the best quality of life for them.
Field cutters collect food from diverse tree species and a range of locations across various seasons from the koala's local environment. This is an extremely important aspect of koala husbandry as it maintains a connection between the captive koala and its natural and wild instincts – through food!
A huge amount of factors are involved in collecting koala food. As cutters, we must understand the local environment and be familiar with the koala's preference for certain tree species. We know that not only do seasonal changes affect the taste of the leaves on the trees, but day-to-day changes in soil composition also change the texture and taste of the leaves. We are able to recognise and predict tiny changes to the local environment and cater to new populations of koala that may come from a different region and be accustomed to different flavours and textures of food.
When you have a group of koalas that are healthy, robust, enthusiastic and energetic, you know you have done your job correctly.
Today, many zoological institutions will simply collect well-known and easily-accessed tree species and stick to that. This approach merely keeps the koala alive but does not see them thrive.
Human Behaviour Influencing Koalas
The relationships between staff, their general disposition and attitude toward their job, and their daily manner has a huge impact on the koala's psychological health. A toxic or negative work environment, where staff are disgruntled, angry or bitter, can lead to noticeable behavioural changes within a captive koala population.
Koalas thrive from an environment that provides enrichment that emulates their natural environment, nutritional diversity through food sourced from local (and external) environments (that factor in small seasonal changes and soil compositions), a positive environment with happy humans, and a consistent routine. These factors are complicated even further once you factor in larger considerations such as urban growth and development, fencing and green zones, political and corporate landscapes and negative human interference.
If even one of these elements is missing, then the mental and physical health of the koala will decrease.
Elements of Success
In today's cutting environment, only a certain amount of people in the industry can appreciate and understand the difficulties and numerous factors involved in sourcing food as a form of enrichment for koalas. To ensure a prosperous captive koala population, three crucial elements are involved:
- Koala health, wellbeing and welfare
- Increased human understanding and awareness
- Commercial opportunities
Incorporating these three elements has numerous advantages for a koala enrichment program, and allows you to understand the true personality of the individual koala, while also receiving the best possible outcomes for their health and wellbeing. An additional benefit from this is that this approach is proven to be commercially successful; driving tourism, enhancing education, boosting the economy and providing jobs.
The captivity sector understands that if they create a healthy diet for the koala, provide an atmosphere that allows the koala to express itself, and encourage harmony between staff and animals, then not only will the entire park thrive, but the commercial side will too.
However, incorporating these three elements to a park can be like a dance where everybody needs to fulfil their role adequately to have a successful and harmonious outcome.
It can be hard work to find that momentum and harmony and to create a working environment where all the puzzle pieces fit together perfectly. It is very easy for any one of the above elements to fall out of sync. Factors such as drought, flood, staff turnover, management changes, staff morale all can disrupt this careful dance and the routine of the park.
Prioritising the Koala
At the end of the day, the main question that needs to be answered is: 'how can we improve our captive institutions and their daily operations to suit the needs of the nomadic koala?'
Next Article: Part 3 on Koala Food Production, Do koalas Only Eat Gum leaves?
