Koalaty Koala Care

A faint hiccup interrupts the mechanical beeping in the Australian clinic, and a few seconds later, another. It’s the first sound of a treatment that will cost more than $6,000 and require months of care. At Currumbin Wildlife Hospital in far south Gold Coast, a koala has become a daily event.

Koala numbers have skyrocketed at the wildlife treatment center nestled among the eucalyptus, but the koalas are not coming for a snack. Some come from more than 100 kilometers away, but only half will ever return. The other half will pass, often with problems that could have been prevented with earlier intervention.

“In 2007 we treated about 6,000 animals and 28 koalas,” veterinarian Dr. Michael Pyne explains. “We now see 10,000 animals and 460 koalas.”

Pyne has worked at the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital since 2000, helping tens of thousands of animals return to the wild, but also seeing many take their final breath.