Koala Research

Meet ... Pat

Our little baby has grown up! Pat has now been independent from her mother, Smoky since April 2006. This is when we first saw her in a different tree from Smoky. Pat would have been about 15 months old, and though the two of them stayed close together for a while, they slowly got further and further apart until they were seen at opposite ends of Smoky's home range.

They stayed apart for seven months, when suddenly we saw Smoky back in the same tree with Pat. It was early November, and the breeding season was starting. We wonder whether mum felt that her teenage daughter needed some protection from roving males!! Smoky stayed close to Pat for about six weeks, then went back to her normal area.

Now Pat is almost as big as a normal adult female, and if she keeps growing she might be as tall as her mother.

Until July 2007 Pat was always seen in a fairly small area - smaller than an adult female's home range in the You Yangs. In the first few months of her independence, she was always seen in the same couple of trees, in an area only 100m x 50m, then slowly she broadened her range. Now she is 2.5 years old, she has finally been seen exploring outside of this small area. One day she was seen 300m away from her normal home, and moving further away! Interestingly though, she has not been seen in her mother's home area - teenage girls need their space when they first move out of home, I suppose!

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