Sometimes sleeping koalas are pretty hard to spot, because they blend in with the greys in their surroundings. But this fellow (Phascolarctos cinereus) was high up in a tallow wood tree just catching the morning light during our bird survey. Pic: Trina McLellan

UPDATE (January, 2016): On New Year’s Day, 2016, we saw a smaller koala in the same tree and noted evidence around the base and up the trunk of significant scrapings and climbing marks! This is wonderful news. Will try to get a photo of this second koala over the coming weeks, but they are shy creatures!

With a rapidly dwindling koala population, especially in south-east Queensland, it was simply wonderful to discover this quite big old fellow (Phascolarctos cinereus), at first napping, high up in a tallow wood tree when we were doing our May bird survey in the Dawn Road Reserve.

He awoke slowly from his slumber when he heard us congregating around the base of his tree and poked his head around to see what we were up to below before adopting the classic, still rather sleepy koala pose, making for the ideal photograph.

The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) stirs from its sleepy position high up in a tree in the Dawn Road Reserve. Pic: Trina McLellan

This lovely big old koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) finally awoke and posed for a photograph before settling back for a sleep in the morning sun. Pic: Trina McLellan

In Queensland, the biggest threats to koalas come from urban development, cars, dogs, disease (most notably chlamydia) and drought.