Koala and Wompoo Fruit Doves Sighted in a Fig Tree at Boambee!
By Justin Couper
I was walking through the southern end of the beach on October 17 this year, undertaking a vegetation condition assessment for Jetty Dunecare Major Strategic project “Boambee Creek to Coffs Creek: Rehabilitation of coastal corridor connections” funded through City of Coffs Harbour Council Environmental Levy program”. The southern end of the beach has a small remnant of Coastal Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest (Threatened Ecological Community) which is in good condition.
I spotted the koala in a fig tree at the Southern end of the beach, in the exact location of a 2004 koala record on Atlas of Living Australia. There were also 3 Wompoo Fruit Doves (vulnerable in NSW) in the same tree!
Colourful Wompoo Fruit Dove
This article and sighting is to reinforce how important biodiversity is and that koalas and doves also need big shady trees for those really hot days, especially at midday, not just trees as a food source. We often get stuck on the preconception that koalas can be found only in a eucalyptus tree, munching away or sleeping but here is an example of a complete surprise encounter with one.
To see three vulnerably listed wompoo doves in the same tree surely reminds us that we can’t predict what nature provides for our wildlife, but providing an abundance and variety of native trees and restoring degraded bushland can be a good contribution by Landcarers and other bush regeneration groups.
Sighting of the koala in the same location as another koala in 2004 signifies a generational preference for this area. Let’s hope we see them still there in another 15 years!
For anyone interested in more on this story, photos are posted on the Ecolinx Conservation Projects Facebook page with a video edit of the koala.
