Danielle Clode - Koala: A Natural History and an Uncertain Future

ALSO BY DANIELLE CLODE

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Voyages to the South Seas: In Search of Terres Australes

Prehistoric Giants: The Megafauna of Australia

A Future in Flames

Prehistoric Marine Life in Australias Inland Sea

From Dinosaurs to Diprotodons: Australias Amazing Fossils

The Wasp and the Orchid

The First Wave (with Gillian Dooley)

In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World

John Long: Fossil Hunter

A Natural History and
an Uncertain Future

Danielle Clode

Copyright 2023 by Danielle Clode

First American Edition 2023

First published in Australia in 2022 as Koala: A Life in Trees by Black Inc., an imprint of Schwartz Books Pty Ltd.

All rights reserved

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Jacket design: Paul Buckley

Jacket photographs: Eric Isselee / Shutterstock

Production manager: Louise Mattarelliano

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Names: Clode, Danielle, author.

Title: Koala : a natural history and an uncertain future / Danielle Clode.

Description: First American edition. | New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2023. | First published in Australia in 2022 as Koala: A Life in Trees by Black Inc., an imprint of Schwartz Books Pty Ltd. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022030777 | ISBN 9781324036838 (hardback) | ISBN 9781324036845 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: KoalaAustralia. | KoalaAustraliaEcology. | KoalaAustraliaHabitat.

Classification: LCC QL737.M384 C56 2023 | DDC 599.2/5dc23/eng/20220705

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022030777

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For all the environmentalists, carers, conservationists,
researchers, rangers and nature lovers who work so hard to
protect the future of our wildlife

The author acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises their knowledge and continuing connection to the land, waters and wildlife. She pays her respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

Fossils of koalas have been found across the southern and eastern regions of Australia at the sites named on this map. Over the last two hundred years, the distribution and abundance of koalas has retracted east. They are now least abundant in the palest shaded areas and most abundant in the darkest and have re-established wild populations in their former range in South Australia.

The koala family tree, with common names and illustrations of representative members. Extinct groups are in grey.

A cool breeze ruffled the koalas fur, causing her to stir in her sleep. With her head tucked into her chest, she was barely visible in the waning light a grey mass wedged in the fork of a tree. Her large ears rotated slowly, scanning the surroundings. She lifted her head, eyes still closed, breathed in the dampening night air and let the sounds and smells of evening wash over her.

She could hear the creek burbling below and the rhythmic nightly chorus of crickets. The frenetic noise of the day had subsided. Most of the birds had already retired to their roosts, save a lone gang-gang cockatoo, its low creaking cry echoing across the valley as it flew past in search of its family.

Sleep beckoned. It was too soon to feed. The trees still hummed from the energy of the departed sun. It would be some hours before they drifted into their nightly cycle of respiration, when their defences dwindled and their leaves were at their most succulent and tasty.

Even so, it was time to move. The trees here were redolent with the scent of other koalas and their leaves already heavily browsed.

She stretched a leg and scratched behind her ear before moving down the trunk of the tree with sudden swiftness. She dropped with a crunch onto the shedded piles of dried bark and headed off on a path she had not taken before.

Each night took her on a new route. Each trail was unfamiliar, filled with hazards and perils. Sometimes her course took her through patches of heath, over rocks, across creeks and clearings or into pockets of forests. But every night, long before dawn, shed stop and sit on her haunches, then return to the trees she had left.

These treks were not long but they were tiring and did not give her much time to eat when she returned. Sometimes she was forced to eat during the day, when the leaves were sharp and bitter. But she had no choice she had to continue.

Tonight, the moon was setting, a tiny sliver of silver drifting down towards the horizon. She soon left the comforting scents of the patch of trees where she had been born and spent most of her life, and headed out across an open clearing. It was easy travelling at least, even if she was vulnerable to the silent swoop of powerful owls. Clouds scudded across the sky, concealing even the bright starlight of the Milky Way and providing a brief cover of darkness.

The vegetation thickened into heath, and she wandered between the bushes, weaving an unsteady path until the heath gave way to low scrub. She quickened her pace through the open undergrowth. Smelling damp ground, she veered off towards the promising scent of water.

Before long, the dampness condensed into a trickle and then a creekline. She followed the trail down into a gully. Trees rose overhead and ferns obscured her path, but she persisted, splashing through intermittent pools of water.

Her stomach grumbled and her feet ached. Shed gone further than shed managed on any previous night. She needed to find food or return, but something in the air lured her on just a little bit further.

A rocky outcrop blocked her path, a precipice opening up before her. She turned and dropped backwards over the edge, her feet scrambling for a foothold, her large black claws splayed like grappling hooks over the smooth surface. Reaching the bottom, she stopped and sniffed. The gully was damp and cool and the trees were large. The blend was just right. She could smell the crisp wattles and the sweet bursarias, the spicy undertones of the brackens, but beneath it all lay the smooth rolling perfume of a mature manna gum. She headed towards it, reeled in by the intoxicating scent.

Bark and leaves crunched beneath her feet as she approached the old tree, rising vast and broad above her. She stretched up on her hind legs, her forearms wide against the tree, taking short, deliberate breaths. Something was missing.