Rescuers track down koala after mother was mauled to death

Wildlife rescuers were able to track down an injured koala joey that had fled after its mother was mauled to death on a south-east Queensland property.

Wildcare Australia was called to rescue the koala at Imbil in Mary Valley near Gympie on Sunday.

Little Jacklyn didn't seem to have any visible injuries, but on inspection and treatment at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital she discovered she does have blood in her abdomen, volunteer Scott Wilson said.

He praised the landowner for finding the dead mother, which allowed rescuers to liaise with zoo staff.

The zoo staff confirmed that the female koala had a dependent young and were able to tell us the size of joey to look for, he said.

We went back onto the property, searched for an hour or so, and found this young koala. Mr Wilson urged residents to look out for koalas as they moved around the country looking for a mate during the breeding season, which traditionally started in July.

He said that there was a greater chance that the marsupials would come into contact with roads, cars, people, and dogs.

Mr Wilson said that this is by no means a demonisation of dogs or dog owners.

We're asking people to pay particular attention this time of year as koalas are moving around to try and contain their dogs to their property as much as possible. Mr Wilson said koalas were more likely to move around during dawn and dusk.

The more education we do in the community, the more people we pay attention to and look for them or notice them would add to the likelihood of us getting more calls and people seeing more koalas out there. The state government has announced that additional $3 million will be allocated for the wildlife hospitals at the RSPCA, Currumbin Sanctuary, and Australia Zoo over the next two years.

The amount is in addition to the 1.5 million dollars provided to the SEQ Wildlife Hospital Network each year.

Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said the aim of the South East Queensland Koala Conservation Strategy was to prevent the animals from ending up in hospital in the first place.

Ms Scanlon said that there would be a focus on treating chlamydia in the species and creating protected areas.

She said that we need to make sure we protect the habitat of all of these native species and have a record investment to be able to purchase even more land, so we can protect really, really important iconic animals like the koala.

Wildlife Warriors director and Australia Zoo owner Terri Irwin welcomed the announcement and said a change in the koala management strategy was a must.

Ms Irwin said that an increasing number of the animals ended up in hospital, while koala populations were diminishing.

Increased habitat is going to give us options instead of returning injured koalas to areas that might be developed with golf courses, schools, and housing to give them a chance to live more in the wild, Ms Irwin said.

Ms Irwin said the wildlife hospital had treated more than 10,000 koalas with chlamydia, the species' biggest threat.

She said that having a vaccine for all those animals going back into the wild would be a huge step in the right direction.

We need the vaccine to have a long shelf life as we're in final development and testing.