About Koala Bermborok

mature female koala in YOu Yangs

Bermborok

Origin of name:

The Bermborok Clan of the Wathaurong Aboriginal People lived for tens of thousands of years around the Brisbane Ranges, just west of the You Yangs. The current town of Beremboke is sourced from this name.

Known since:

She was first seen in December 2012. She was so cute! We think she was only about 2 or 3 years old at that time. She was quite nervous of us, which suggests she had little experience of humans. Maybe she came from an area that few people visit.

Female koala as 5 year old
Bermborok in 2015

Over time she has become more relaxed/habituated to people, but she is still cautious.

How often seen:

Bermborok is seen roughly every two weeks – she was seen 29 times in 2017, 32 times in 2018 and 26 times in 2019.

Family:

None known – Bermborok has never had a joey during the time we’ve known her. This is not all that unusual. A fair proportion of our females never breed successfully. It may be due to a lack of fitness – producing and feeding a joey is a huge strain on a mother koala, especially in times of drought, and with climate change droughts are more frequent.

There is a chance that she is the daughter of another of our known koalas, but she was so nervous that it seems unlikely.

dark coloured southern koala female
Neighbours:

Bermborok shares part of her home range with males Bungaleenee and Jandamarra. Her female neighbours are Babarrang, Ngardang, and young females Cuddles, KiKi, Kozo and Lakorra.  Recently, Misty and Lluvia have been popping in to her area.

Survived extreme heat/drought catastrophes:

Bermborok has survived the following extreme heat waves and droughts.

Millenium Drought 1996 – 2010: She might have been born right at the end of this terrible drought.
2014: 14 to 17 January (4 days over 40C, the last at max 46C)
2019: 4 January max temp: 46C
2019: 25 January max temp: 46C
2019: 20 December max temp: 46C
2019: 30 December max temp: 44C

Media Appearances:

none yet.

young female koala

How do we know all this about Bermborok?

Our Wild Koala Research Project has been monitoring the koalas of the You Yangs and Brisbane Ranges for 20 years, using our non-intrusive method of nose pattern identification. Learn more:

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