Claude the koala goes on a rampage, eating $6,000 worth of seedlings on the north coast of NSW
A hungry koala has been captured with “green hands” after eating thousands of seedlings intended to create new koala habitat.
The marsupial has wreaked havoc on tree seedlings worth about $60.00 at the Eastern Forest Nursery, on the far north coast of NSW, over a two-month run.
The nursery’s owner, Humphrey Herington, initially thought the damage was being done by possums, until he stumbled across the greedy koala one morning.
Mr. Herrington found Claude after a particularly long night of indulging in the seedlings and he had grown too big to climb his tree.
He said Claude had “eaten thousands of seedlings” of “every kind of koala food tree we grow here.”
A hungry koala named Claude (pictured) for its long claws has feasted on seedlings worth about $6,000 at the Eastern Forest Nursery, on NSW’s north coast.
Mr. Herrington initially tried to move Claude, but the “leaf thief” returned to his buffet only days later.
“I put a towel around him and moved him a few hundred yards away to a large tree near my neighbour,” he said in a statement from the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature-Australia.
“He was kind of sloppy when I picked him up.
“Two days later Claude was back and he’s been hanging out every night planting the seedlings.”
After being eaten ‘from home’ by Claude, Mr. Herrington plans to build a fence around the nursery to keep any bugs out of the seedlings.
‘I’m sorry Claude, but the party’s over. You’re eating me all over the house, so I’ve been working on a fence to keep you out,” he said.
“It’s back to normal for you.”
In all the years Mr. Herrington had grown seedlings at his nursery, he had never seen a koala act like Claude.
Claude had chewed his way through thousands of seedlings grown to help create new habitats for countless animals like him
“For me, this is not normal koala activity,” he told the Saturday Telegraph.
‘However, they don’t have much choice where to get new food.
“There must be a shortage of food here.”
The nursery grows all seedlings on site, all of which help restore habitats in projects led by Bangalow Koalas and the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia.
“These seedlings are well watered and fertilized and are top shelf food for a koala,” said Tanya Pritchard, Senior Manager Koala Recovery at WWF Australia.
“Claude has developed a taste for champagne and, with his where-are-you-at-attitude, has decided it can’t be denied.”