Koala Research

Meet ... Garry Plant (GP)

Bushfire update 12 February 2006: Garry Plant (as you may have read in our news updates) was rescued without any burns after escaping into an unburnt area, before the fire changed direction. He was doing very well and we thought he would soon be released. However, we were extremely sad to hear that he died last Tuesday. His autopsy revealed that he had Peritonitis which may have been an undiagnosed existing problem or caused by the recent stress related to the fire.

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This fella is a real character. He has the best ears we've ever seen on a male koala - huge, fluffy, and sticking straight out from the side of his head! He would be a candidate for an ear-pinning operation if he was human, but fortunately for him, big ears are a good quality in a koala! He often looks a bit surprised - partly due to the ears, and partly to a little white patch over his right eye.

We first saw him in May 2004, and since then have seen him occasionally - we still haven't figured out his home area!

It takes years to plot a koala's home range. We just note every tree we see them in, and after hundreds of sightings we get an idea of their most usual area. For females this is fairly easy - their range seems to be only about 100 to 150 metres (yards) in diameter, but for males it is tough! Their range can be 300 to 400 metres (yards) across, and we suspect even larger for some powerful males. Over 5 years, Uncle Tom was seen in an area 1/2 kilometre (1/3 mile) across!

Garry Plant's neighbours are Paty, Santa Barbara and Wacoo that we know of, and Blaze who is his greatest rival.

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