Koalas and traffic
Sep. 29th, 2015 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rscI was driving along the road to the Cape Otway lighthouse, when I saw a couple of people standing in the road, apparently photographing something in the trees. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jwg started to express irritation (which I shared), but then as the couple got off the road out of our way he exclaimed "There's something in that tree! Pull over!" What was in the tree turned out be a mother koala and her baby (although it was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began), apparently sound asleep. As we trained our lenses on them -- his camera, my binoculars -- several other cars arrived and a few more pulled off the road to observe and photograph.
Then later on, on the main road on the way back to Anglesea (where we're staying), we passed a sign displaying a silhouette of a koala and the words "next 25 km", at which I snorted, having seen many such signs for various wildlife, but never an actual sighting. Then a short while later we saw a koala sitting by the side of the road, apparently doing nothing in particular. As it happened, there was a side road into a half-built housing development about ten feet on, so we pulled into it and parked. As we were walking back to get a closer look, it seemed to be considering crossing the road, which struck me as a bad idea, but sure enough, it then lumbered out into the middle of the road, requiring two cars that had come from the same direction as us to stop, whereupon the koala decided to stop too. The woman driving the front car got out and tried to encourage, first with gestures and then with bodily force, the koala to get out of the way, but it was all "I prefer not to" and wouldn't budge. Finally it decided to lumber the rest of the way across the road, where it more or less came to a stop. So all present started to make the most of the photo-op (along with several more drivers who happened along), which included some of the people going up to it and scratching its head and stroking its back, which didn't seem to faze it at all.
Finally, it seemed to decide "OK, that's enough of that", waddled back to its original side of the road, climbed the nearest tree, emitted a few very odd vocalizations, and settled in, probably for a nap, and we went on our way.
John has pictures, which I assume he will post at some point.
jwg started to express irritation (which I shared), but then as the couple got off the road out of our way he exclaimed "There's something in that tree! Pull over!" What was in the tree turned out be a mother koala and her baby (although it was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began), apparently sound asleep. As we trained our lenses on them -- his camera, my binoculars -- several other cars arrived and a few more pulled off the road to observe and photograph.Then later on, on the main road on the way back to Anglesea (where we're staying), we passed a sign displaying a silhouette of a koala and the words "next 25 km", at which I snorted, having seen many such signs for various wildlife, but never an actual sighting. Then a short while later we saw a koala sitting by the side of the road, apparently doing nothing in particular. As it happened, there was a side road into a half-built housing development about ten feet on, so we pulled into it and parked. As we were walking back to get a closer look, it seemed to be considering crossing the road, which struck me as a bad idea, but sure enough, it then lumbered out into the middle of the road, requiring two cars that had come from the same direction as us to stop, whereupon the koala decided to stop too. The woman driving the front car got out and tried to encourage, first with gestures and then with bodily force, the koala to get out of the way, but it was all "I prefer not to" and wouldn't budge. Finally it decided to lumber the rest of the way across the road, where it more or less came to a stop. So all present started to make the most of the photo-op (along with several more drivers who happened along), which included some of the people going up to it and scratching its head and stroking its back, which didn't seem to faze it at all.
Finally, it seemed to decide "OK, that's enough of that", waddled back to its original side of the road, climbed the nearest tree, emitted a few very odd vocalizations, and settled in, probably for a nap, and we went on our way.
John has pictures, which I assume he will post at some point.
