Helping Koalas in Extreme Heat

Koalas spend more time on the ground to keep cool in the summer. They also come down to look for water as the gum leaves they eat dry out in the hot weather.

Unless a koala is clearly sick or injured or doesn’t go back to the trees at night, it’s best to keep your pets away and let it be.

In general, the Department for Environment and Water advises against feeding or providing water to our wild animals.

It can cause problems ranging from poor nutrition to aggressive behaviour, or even physical injury to the animal. In time, they may even forget how to find their own food or water. You can learn more about keeping the ‘wild’ in wildlife on the department’s website.

Instead of leaving food and water out this summer, you could consider providing and maintaining areas of suitable natural habitat, such as planting native shrubs or providing nest boxes.

Following emergency situations like bushfires, providing water on a short-term basis can be beneficial. If you do plan to provide water for your local wildlife, we encourage you to follow these tips:

• To prevent the spread of disease, clean, thoroughly dry, and refill containers with fresh water daily. Alternatively, you can use a refilling water station.
• To make sure all animals can access it, provide the water at both ground level (suitable for most mammals, birds and reptiles) and elevated in trees for animals that are reluctant to visit the ground (such as possums and some birds).
• Water containers should be shallow, robust and stable. Many animals will aspirate or choke if they drink from an unnatural position such as from a water bottle. To help smaller animals safely access the water, add a rock or stick (or other suitable material) to the container.
• Place water at least 50 metres away from public roads.
• Rather than one large water container, provide several small containers with a lower volume of water. Space water containers as far apart as possible.
• If possible, place water containers in shaded areas or small clearings to encourage timid species and reduce the risk of predators.
• Do not add electrolytes, rehydration solutions or sugar to water.
• As conditions improve you should begin to phase out the supply of water stations.