Australian koala population relocated for over-eating

The relocation of a koala population in Australia's Victoria state began due to the marsupials' over-eating habits, officials said on Thursday.

More than 400 koalas living on French Island in the middle of the Western Port Bay will swap their ocean view for a dense forest near Kinglake, 170 km away, Xinhua news agency reported.

The marsupials will become the first koalas to call Kinglake home since the region was devastated by Australia's worst-ever bushfires in 2009, which killed 173 people.

Vegetation in the area has been declared ready to support a koala population for the first time since the bushfires.

One koala per hectare is considered a healthy ratio, with the animals consuming roughly 4 kg of eucalyptus leaves every day.

Viv Amenta, manager of the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), said moving the koalas would be a "logistically challenging process".

The koalas are captured one-by-one by up to three staff members on French Island and are then given an anaesthetic and a health check.

Female koalas are given hormone implants to prevent them from reproducing.

Up to 30 koalas are then put into special boxes and loaded onto a barge which takes them to the Mornington Peninsula before being driven to their new homes.

"All of this happens in one day and the koalas are then kept overnight before transporting them to their new home," Amenta said on Thursday.

"Koalas have to be released within 36 hours."

--IANS

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