I was strolling around the Hospital grounds the other morning and noticed one of the joeys in the joey yard perched in the bough of a tree.
I decided to go into the yard to check things out and found that it was the handsome Dunbogan Dave! Did you know that you can "adopt" Dave (which helps raise money for the Koala Hospital)?
I wrote briefly about the arrival of Dunbogan Audrey with her joey, Dunbogan Dave. They were admitted to the Koala Hospital back in November 2010. Audrey was particularly run down, with an unhealthy brown coat, and had clearly been struggling to find sufficient nutrition for her and her joey.
Not that you would know that from looking at Dave, who was at least in better condition than his mother - although on closer inspection turned out to be underweight and malnourished. It's often the case that joeys still get the best of care, when Mum is going downhill. However, in this case, they both came into the Hospital in the nick of time.
As Dave was being borne on his mother's back, we were able to separate them in order to focus on bringing them individually back to health. Dave went into home care for round-the-clock feeding and care, while we concentrated on optimising Mum Audrey's nutrition and general health.
In no time, we were able to release Audrey back to the wild - her work raising her joey now complete. As for Dave, he came back into the Hospital to reside temporarily in our joey yard. This is when supplemental feeding stops and the joey is left to eat leaf and climb to their heart's content - generally building up their climbing muscles and acquiring the skills needed to be a koala in the wild.
Some video of Dave:
Adopt Dunbogan Dave now, by clicking here!
Bye Dave!
Click here to view more koala hospital photos.
