Budapest Zoo Photo: Estormiz

Hungary’s Budapest Zoo is home to two Queensland koalas Photo: Estormiz


It was a seven degree day, warm for Budapest in late December. On holidays, a special visit was arranged for me to go behind the scenes at Budapest Zoo to meet two Queensland koalas.
As I live in Redlands, once billed as the koala capital of the world, it was going to be interesting to see what these creatures looked like and how they were handing a very un-wild existence.
The two male koalas moved into their residence early in 2015 to a specially designed and fitted out enclosure within the Budapest zoo complex.The Zoo is not far away from Heroes Square and the Art Gallery centre for those that have visited this city on the Danube.
While billed as Queensland koalas they are not. This is to distinguish them from their southern Australian counterparts. In actual fact neither of these male koalas has lived anywhere else but in the northern hemisphere.
The bigger boy Nu-Nuru-Bin , whose name in Aboriginal may check out as something like “south wind”, was born on 15 June 2012 at the Mechelen Plankendeal Wild Animal Park in Belgium. His counterpart , Vobara, a made up name from other words, was born in Germany at the Duisburg Zoo on 29 July 2012.
What a pampered existence these two koalas have! We saw them at their weigh in and feeding time at one o’clock in their zoo home. Of course we had to start with a disinfectant foot wash for boots before entering their enclosure and a hand wash for good measure as there was promise of a fur stroke when Nu-Nuru- Bin and Vobara moved from their weigh in back to their “feeding trees” in their separate enclosures. We could follow this from the service corridors at the back of their building, not available to the public viewing.
A trolley held the day’s lunch, five varieties of eucalypts, imported twice weekly from south western England and flown via Germany to Budapest to be refrigerated until used. This was given a final hose down before their meal and Kati their keeper put the five bundles of leaves into water in like vase- like containers spaced around their ‘trees”. Their choice of leaf is monitored to establish their favourite and afterwards the uneaten leaves are placed in the public viewing area to share the eucalyptus smell.
Kati Moses koala carer at Budapest Zoo holds one of two male koalas. Photo: Genevieve Gall

Kati Moses koala carer at Budapest Zoo holds one of two male koalas. Photo: Genevieve Gall


The relationship between keepers and koalas was obvious. These are intelligent loving animals. But who wouldn’t be that way when Kati brushed them gently, either for their comfort or for the benefit of the eager viewers. She carried them from weighing room to tree and they seemed to love it. Their fur was light grey, thick, but not long. Each had the usual male chest marking.
Yes, their male vocalising had been heard in their time at Budapest Zoo and while they were aware of each other in their adjoining residences this proved quite stressful when Nu-Nuru-Bin had actually been able to see Vobarn through a glass section of the partition. Although changed to avoid such sighting, I kept thinking that koalas are not supposed to be able to see very well.
Plump and cuddly looking they certainly were, intelligent and knowing. The Zoo is very proud of its success. To achieve and maintain these healthy male koalas is a step on the way to achieving a koala breeding status for the Zoo. This of course will depend on the strict protocols followed by the zoos especially to prevent in-breeding.
I shed a tear to see the care lavished on these animals: back home our wild koalas are being squeezed out of their natural homes and probably out of their very existence.

Genevieve Gall – 30 December 2015

Paul Smythe, Jan 10, 2016

zoos will soon be the only place we will see Redlands’ koalas – thank about that !

Ray Cullen, Jan 03, 2016

Sad to see the native icon the Koala of the Redlands being driven to extinction by Corporate excesses and Greed!
With the Redlands City Councils endless desire for Development at any price!
I’m sure future generations to come, will look back and ask “Why did we let it happen”?
Easy! The Corporate mentality of Government at all levels in this country now tramples over everyone and everything in its path in the name of Development we must have? Read Corporate mega-buck profits!

Amy Glade, Jan 02, 2016

Yes it’s heartbreakng to witness local extinctions of our beloved koalas as our Coolnwynpin Ck in Capalaba near my home had a corridor along the creek bank with core habitat at 29-37 Moreton Bay Rd that had been in our first Mayor Eddie’s time, under Special Protection under Koala Coast Policy which sadly has long snce been discarded so developers with deep pockets along with local State govt operatives, can simply kill them off for personal gain. This policy, as we all have come to know, seemingly is the policy since corridors in Ormiston and elsewhere, formerly under protection, have all been filled in with housing causing distress and depression within communities trying in vain to save them….even so far as people working towards purchasing a stand of koala trees in Ormiston. As local ex-AWU MP in Capalaba told my neighbour, ‘the only koala you will see in future here is in the zoo’. Will Shoreline be the end of the line for our remaining local koalas?

Erica Siegel, Jan 01, 2016

Thank you for that report, Genevieve, I agree it is sad indeed that hundreds of thousands are spent on two zoo koalas when the local koalas are bulldozed out of their home for monetary gain. Different values !

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