How a small team of ‘Gum Cutters’ feed over 400 koalas
A Gold Coast conservation park has issued a public plea for help amid a spike in koala hospitalisations. See why
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A Gold Coast conservation park has issued a public plea for help amid a spike in koala hospitalisations.
Come rain, hail or shine – Sarah Eccleston wakes up every day before the sun rises and spends the next five hours manually harvesting gum leaves to feed over 400 koalas.
Ms Eccleston, a koala specialist, is one of nine Currumbin Green Guardians known as the ‘Gum Cutters’ whose job is to harvest truck loads of eucalypt daily for hundreds of ‘patients’ admitted to the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital and some 50 resident koalas at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.
“It’s extremely physical and demanding work,” Ms Eccleston said.
“But so rewarding when you see the koalas healthy and munching away.”
Once harvested, the leaves are loaded into a truck and taken to the ‘Koala Pantry’, an irrigated shed at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, for sorting ahead of feeding time.
Currumbin Wildlife Hospital currently has access to four plantations on the Gold Coast and surrounds, with a total of around 40,000 trees.
And each day, the team decides which plantation to harvest depending on which type of eucalypt the koalas want to eat.
“We have 35 species of eucalypt at the plantations, and koalas’ tastes change depending on the time of year and their nutritional needs,”
However, with each koala capable of eating up to a kilogram of leaves per day, the small team of Gum Cutters are struggling to keep up with demand.
“The trees are harvested sustainably, but we desperately need more to be planted all the time, to keep up with the huge demand,” Ms Eccleston added.
“It takes up to 1000 trees to feed just one koala a year.”
Ms Eccleston said Gold Coasters can support her team by donating to the wildlife sanctuary’s Tree to Me appeal which plants a new gum tree for every $10 donated.
The content summaries were created with the assistance of AI technology then edited and approved for publication by an editor.
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