September 2018 - Tropical North Queensland
After our great snorkel trip to the Great Barrier Reef, we spent a couple days trying to see some iconic Australian wildlife, and the koala was one of our main targets. We made a trip out to Magnetic Island, where a number of wild koalas live.
It was a big success! We saw 8 koalas. We timed it to be there in the evening, when they are active for a few hours, and we got to see them eating and even got to see one of them change trees (see the video at the bottom).
There is also an old WW2 fort on the island, and of course we saw some other endemic species (a lizard and a bird).
After our great snorkel trip to the Great Barrier Reef, we spent a couple days trying to see some iconic Australian wildlife, and the koala was one of our main targets. We made a trip out to Magnetic Island, where a number of wild koalas live.
It was a big success! We saw 8 koalas. We timed it to be there in the evening, when they are active for a few hours, and we got to see them eating and even got to see one of them change trees (see the video at the bottom).
There is also an old WW2 fort on the island, and of course we saw some other endemic species (a lizard and a bird).
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| Magnetic island seen from our hotel room | Geoffrey Bay, on Magnetic | Magnetic island! And the mainland in the distance. |
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| Our first koala sighting! | He's climbing down the tree | Free climbing, koala style |
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| Made it near the bottom | Reaching up for some dinner on his new tree | |
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| Dinner time! Looks like it's eucalyptus leaves on the menu tonight. | About an hour later, curled up and back to sleep | Koala sightings 2 and 3 (notice the little baby head sticking out in the front) |
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| The mother | Koala sighting number 4. He's not ready to tackle the day yet. | About half an hour later as the sun sets, still not budging |
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| Koala sighting number 5. It's hard to get a sense of scale in these pictures, but this was a small juvenile. Mother was a bit lower down in the same tree. | Reaching up, you can really see his dual thumbs | A bit lower in the same tree is the mother (koala sighting 6) |
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| A super small baby koala, probably a foot tall, eating dinner (sighting 7). Mother was lower in the same tree (sighting 8, but no clear picture). | What a day! | An old WW2 observation tower at the top of a mountain on the island |
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| View from the tower | A very large gun turret | A wedge-tailed eagle, with a really impressive wingspan |
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| A common garden skink (endemic to Australia!) | A laughing kookaburra (endemic to Australia!) | |
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| An Australasian figbird | A sulphur-crested cockatoo | A rainbow bee-eater |
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| A helmeted friarbird | The fence on the ferry ramp at night to get back to the mainland was packed with welcome swallows | |
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| The view of the mainland as we hike | The sun setting on the island. Time for us to run back to the bus stop! | |
The Koala changing trees. They may sleep 90% of the time, but they can climb when they want to.