Koala Research

Meet ... Raini Robo

Update - 29 February 2008
Those of you who met our lovely old lady koala Raini, will be saddened to hear that she passed away on 29th February. We found her on the ground, looking dejected, and took her into koala hospital. But her kidneys had failed and she passed away a few days after. She was comfortable, warm and well fed and died in her sleep. She gave many people a lot of happiness and we all miss her terribly.

Oh Raini! We named her when we were wishing for rain during the bushfires of January 2006. This lovely older lady was one of the first koalas we met in the You Yangs, and has been such a good friend to us since. She was the first to show us that she recognised us (only 3 weeks after we first met her) and is now quite happy to have our company, we think. Several times she has sat quite low in a tree, and stayed there while we looked at her. Once she even came down out of her tree with us standing right near by! That sort of behavior is extremely rare in a female wild koala, and only a little less rare in males (who are generally more confident on the ground).

She has demonstrated to us that she is full of vigour, even though she is a little on the experienced side of life! She moves around her large home range frequently, and surprises us where she pops up!

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