Oh, the irony.
For weeks on end, Australian nursery owner Humphrey Herington has been racking his brain to identify the elusive thief eating his seedlings.
At first he thought it was escaped goats. Then perhaps a pesky possum.
The last thing he expected was to walk into work one day and find a “cheeky” koala, dazed and too stuffed to move, surrounded by stripped eucalypt plants.
“He looked like he was full. He looked very pleased with himself,” Mr Herington told the BBC.
Staff are now building a koala-proof fence around their seedling tables to thwart the marsupial – dubbed Claude – whose snacking on several thousands plants has cost the nursery A$6,000 (£3,000; $3,800).
This is amusing enough. However,
Ironically, the plants Claude devoured were being grown to boost koala habitats in the region – the species is endangered.
There you go then, job done. Claude is making sure that he is not endangered and offers his thanks for the free lunch.
Eucalyptus leaves, the staple diet of koalas, and he suspected goats or possums as being the chief suspects?
I know. Bears shitting in woods spring to mind.
So how endangered is the species really? Bloke grows some Koala treats, koala turns up to eat them. See also grass seed and birds…
” So how endangered is the species really ?”
Probably not at all, but the “endangered” industry would be having none of that.
A friend of mine lived in the small town of Portland (Vic) for most of the 2000’s and there was enough of them in the trees around the suburb to be a noise nuisance at night.
A few years ago I stayed a night at a caravan park in Seymour (Vic again) and there was one camped up a tree next to the wash house.
There’s two real world data points for you.
Seems to me that if one single Koala can eat his stock of several thousand plants destined for other Koalas then what they were growing wouldn’t have made a dent on helping the rest of the Koala’s.
The key word is ‘seedlings’ I think.