There's No Specializes or true Koala Centre where the focus is on Koala Behaviour
At the moment, it is somewhat self-regulated and there is no real way to track the performances of staff and management. Because of this, you tend to have a two extreme outcomes, a very RESTRICTIVE approach OR very RELAX with no guidance or watchdog to create a balance approach. A lack of Knowledge and experience tend too become to relaxed, which just increases the circumstances of long unseen discomfort levels in koalas. This plus an increase levels of younger and younger staff, with no evidence of an outside mentor-ship program what so ever, as younger staff lack in confidence with there work and within themselves .
Even middle management aren't require to challenge or change things and don't know the many different types of stress levels, as there is good and bad stresses, a proper enrichment program, would balance the drama koalas needs even in captivity. When to do something, and when not to do something, so how are you meant to measure and judge koala husbandry techniques, when nothing gets challenge in the first place. Sure you need experience staff members to guild you along the way, but for me experience staff is in the order of 20 years plus of practical work, from a wide variety of koala parks across Australia and overseas, where these zoos and wildlife parks should have available, a group of koala personnel that specializes in koalas to begin, but that's rare as hens teeth these days. We are sleep at the wheel.
Currently, we don't have an independent watchdog, who regularly visited, who help mentor young staff, answer their questions or how to think outside the box. Its left to management, who are blind themselves, as they don't know which direction to go, and place certain budgets measures, in the wrong areas lacking in proper prevention work in-order to reduce risk. Some management are inexperience themselves, so they are heavily influenced by their own work culture, and where higher management are always looking to cut cost at every avenue and wonder why in months if not years late , how things went wrong, as experience staff themselves aren't or not given the respect they desire, because the expensive associate when many koalas in large numbers, so the culture is one of a negative cycle.
This is where the industry falls-down. There should be a formula and a culture that targets the individual koala, as an individual and as a group, targeting these koalas that promotes a mentally enrichment program, that draws out, each individual personality and temperament and place that behaviour amongst each and every wildlife and zoo's commerce structure, which is also govern under their conservation long-term outcome, anything other than what's happening today, simply generalizing their behaviour and the husbandry work, is an insult to their long term survival.
There should be an outside watchdog, keeping everyone on their toes, preventing this mind-set of an robotic behaviour from staff, which leads into their work and behaviour response for the betterment of their animals. This form of action would place good pressure on staff and higher management to maintain a solid enrichment program, where the outcome is a much active type of koala according to their koala numbers and space given to showing their behaviour. This can translate in a new form of income, for the koala park and create a positive cycle for all concern.
This type of behaviour teaches the staff their boundaries of movement, towards themselves and their animals. Having flexibility and confidence given by a separate entity will ensure conscious staff given by this type of authority. Offering a different service would encourage more questions in one's job and would builds confidence in both keeper and animal. This builds a bond as the animal starts to express itself more openly which begins creating a consistent body language which is a form of communication. This method saves money for institutions. These days, animal keepers are over-managed, missing out on seeing small clues in terms of animal stress levels.
The NSW Australian Department of Agriculture, who are under-staffed, have their main head office about 4 hours away from Sydney city. This creates a behaviour of secrecy within each wildlife park and zoo. The Department of DPI are supposed to do drop-in's (an unexpected visit), to check the care of and licensing of koalas. But, how can you when you are 4-hours away, with a staff of 3-4?
Corporate zoos and wildlife parks seem to be too focused on weekends where they tend to be different from weekdays by under-staffing themselves, instead of seeing it at a constant level throughout the week. Keepers are run off their feet and are unsettled, not able to practice building the art of observation or be creative, like building and repairing different items to enrich animals. Therefore, it's common in our industry for keepers on the daily activities to constantly have head clashes with middle and higher management over their lack of freedom to try new things and explore new training techniques. THE ENRICHMENT IN THE STAFF EXTENDS to the behaviour of their animals, so staff should enjoy the freedom in an industry, knowing known they are allow in their weekly schedule time to be creative.
And it's no different for the koala, because they are culturally known to rest for most of the day, there fore the scope of little scope of activity during the night is limited. So why not have two types of enclosures one by day and another by night, this could happen by simply allowing koalas to roam around the park itself? I mean it's not hard to explore new options, you can limit their movement to avoid escape, but also give them the opportunity to express themselves. When given the chance at more freedom, you are able to see the full expression of their personality.
One Australian park did just that by accident, from a lazy owners and poor leadership, so staff would returned each koala back to its enclosure every morning as part of their morning practice. This went on for years until the staff stopped returning the koalas in the morning and just allowing the koalas to roam the park altogether throughout the day and night.
Staff simply looked for their koalas and placed a large sign saying, "koala in this tree", with an arrow pointing up! The funny thing is, when I received the opportunity to feed this koala population, we found more koalas returning to the main large enclosure in the centre of the park, every morning. We actually got into double figures. The staff were surprised that they had returned on their own accord. Jumping into their own enclosures, but because they had the abilities to come and go, at their pleasure, the staff actually become uncomfortable of this, and so much so, koalas found in the main enclosure, the staff would return them to a tree of their choice, the culture had shifted with a different level of understanding so this group of staff members, had a different mindset. The park had a reputation and an identity where guests and families would enjoy spotting koalas in the park trees. How different and localizes each koala park is, and how they evolved, as all parks have their own story, and sometimes keeping the real story- at a distance from reality.
The staff themselves, did not realize or associating my different formula of feeding their koalas, where the food itself, is thought-out weeks in advance in, as my earlier training and research assisted me from a wide variety of experiences in my understanding the enrichment koalas enjoy and needed while in captivity, my own confidence has evolved, with my own dietary program has develop of the years. And its nothing more then hard work with, a certain amount of character and depth within each delivery. Staff weren't able to spot the differences as the food all looks the same. But these young staff members in time notice the change of behaviour to the point they become uncomfortable, as they were then not educate its a good thing, they had no form of mentor-ship program as this would had cost money to the owners, as they saw no point. In their view - where's the return to their bottom financial line, no thought at all, that this mentor-ship would reduce secondly handling and mistakes, and draw their staff closer to their own animals, and create a higher level of work standards, but this train of thought never enter in there minds, as it was easier and cost effective in the short term to do nothing. But this particular koala park- was known as the Black Sheep of the Sydney Koala parks, and yet it had an opportunity to create a DIFFERENT VERSION of itself, and reinvent itself, but the owners themselves had no real interest to begin-with, they were happier in the culture that existed, which only went downhill years later.
I like to think the reason for so many koala's returning to the main enclosure during the spring and summer, was a combination of spring fever between males and females, and their new dietary program, from yours truly!
Koala behaviour is not recorded during the night or managed. The staff routine is highly managed and higher regulated during the day as zoos and wildlife parks close about 5pm, including managers. They never try something different and allow for a change in routine which could have staff monitor the behaviour characteristic of their own animals and given the opportunity to try new things on a regulate bases. They can't even allow their own staff to set-up new forms of enrichment programs for themselves, it's so rare to see these days, because in management's eyes the time spent trying something new is costly. In some zoos, they have a separate team altogether feeding the koala; it's not the keepers themselves, but horticulturists who are trained in a different field altogether. This compartmentalizes the keepers who manage the animals and is a form of disconnect.
Managing animals at a fixed address gives a certain amount of limitation, our own hierarchy positioning and ego always limits the true behaviour of any animal little own the koala.
It is important to understand the balance of our own actions and the individual of the staff member has a direct behavioural response from their collective koala groups living together in the same environment.
The koala industry itself has hardly moved in the past 20 odd years. which is a negative to begin with, when you compare our industry to others, we are in an Alternate Reality today, and the koala industry don't even know it.
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