The Year of the Koala

“This is a  beautifully written narrative of the life of the koala bear.

The author has done for these Australian arboreal marsupials what Victor B. Scheffer did for two marine mammals in The Year of the Whale and The Year of the Seal. When fire drives a colony of koalas from their secluded gully, most do not survive, but Boorana, a male, is rescued by wildlife rangers and released in a northern reserve; there he is forced to retreat from territory already held by other males. A female refugee from the gully, Talgara, with a young one in her pouch is also caught and transported, but, as a female, is not exposed to hostility from the resident koalas.

The habits of these enchanting creatures – their life in the treetops, their dependence on eucalyptus leaves as food, the way the young are carried for five or six months in a backward-opening pouch and for two or three months on the mother’s back – are described with accuracy and imagination against a constantly changing background.”