SANCTUARY

Evening Star, Issue 22414, 11 August 1936, Page 12

SANCTUARY

WHERE ALL IS PEACE HCME OF THE TEDDY BEAR On a .grassy knoll in a picturesque corner of the Brisbane River stands a solitary pine tree. It looks down upon the rugged iron barks and silvertrunked spotted gums—a dignified sentinel over a happy colony of Australian birds and animals. It is a Queensland hoop pine. Not many years ago, Lone Pine and its troop of gums watched a man as he surveyed the land. It was Mr C. A. M. Reid, Whether the pine or the other trees realised that ho was to bring them their happiest time, we do not know, but that is what happened. Mr Reid loved animals—particularly Australian animals, for he is an Australian to the very core—and he loved birds, too. Ho thought to himself, “ There is no zoo of Australian fauna, although there are lots of places where Australian birds arc to be seen. X will start a zoo.” Now Mr Reid had his particular favourite among the animals—the native bear, or Koala. And who could blame him for his choice. Nothing could be so lovable as the Koala—nothing so inoffensive, so trusting, or cheeky. He is only a little chap really, and to call him a bear seems ludicrous. He is really only a little bundle of sof t thick fur with ears like a teddy bear, and a nose that looks like a piece of plasticine. With these little creatures Mr Reid had a problem before him. No one had been able to keep them in captivity—they did not eat as they should have done. However, Mr Reid thought that he would see what he could do, so he got some Koalas and set them loose in the area which takes its name from its lonely sentinel Lone Pine. He watched them in their natural haunts and saw just what they fancied in the way of gum tips—their sole iood. “ Ah!” you might say, “ but if that is all they eat it should be easy to get them food. Surely gum tips are nob scarce in Australia.” That is just the trouble. So far from being scarce are they that it is difficult to know which ones to choose. There are 367 varieties of eucalyptus in Australia, and tne Koala is not partial to all ol them. He likes about 12 varieties. Mr Reid’s observations showed him that certain trees were as moat ..nd vegetables to the Koala, while others were as fruit, and others again as dessert and drink. And talking of drink, that is where the Koala got its name. It does not drink as w r e understand drinking, so the aborigines called it ‘‘Koala, which means “ nothing to drink or “ I do not drink.” The Koala gets all the drink it needs from the young gum tips, and so unused to water is it, that when given any it attempts to chew it, and of course loses the lot. But to get back to the diet. The Koalas’ staple food is the blue gum and the gray gum. Even here, though there is a difficulty. Blue gums and gray gums are plentiful, but the Koalas like to change the area of their feeding. They like different districts. Well, Mr Reid learned all this before the Koalas ho had liberated wandered away, and with this knowledge he started to keep these little marsupials. They thrived. Sapling gums were taken from all over the place, and now Mr Reid sometimes travels over 70 miles to get saplings that will tickle the palates of these fastidious tilings. . In Australia there arc l\vo varieties of Koala. There is the Northern or Queensland variety, which is gray, and of a light colour. It is small, has

a white front and fine thick fur. The other variety is found in the southern states—particularly iu Victoria. This type is larger than its Queensland brother, is of a more brownish colour and has coarser fur. The Koala is essentially an Australian. it will not live anywhere else—not even in California. The Californian gum trees, though, are not the right blue gum species. They are of the Tasmanian species that the Koalas do not like. _ That is probably why there are no Koalas in Tasmania. As a matter of fact, they are found in only three States in Australia—Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. . Koalas are marsupials. When they are born they are not an inch long and they weigh about five grains. They have no fur, and they are quite trying to their mothers, to whose backs they cling with their small claws, which later grow to very powerful ones that can grasp swaying gum twigs in the fiercest gale. They do not feed themselves, the mother choosing a suitable As they baby grows mother’s burden becomes heavier, lor she cairies, hei offspring on her back until it is almost as big as herself. But mother bears are very motherly and become devoted to their young ones, or to the young ones of any other bear for that matter, and when deprived of them, cry piteously and make almost human endeavours to regain the little ones, ...he mother bear seems quite content with a baby, even if it is someone else’s. It takes about sis months for the baby to be fully furred and about four years for him to grow up. In this tune his five grains’ weight have increased to about 30 pounds. And now for some of their habits. One has been told that they don’t drink—well, they don’t wash, either. Oh no, they are by no means dirty; they are scrupulously clean and always have the delicate scent of gum leaves about them. Thev love the trees and rarely come to earth. In the heights of the highest gums these little chaps live their lives happy lives they must be. too, coti.sistiug of eating airl sleeping. They sit down on twigs and branches; they cling to smooth, slippery trunks, and when thev move, which they do frequently, they go from tree-top to tree- ! top. to avoid climbing down.