00:00A really big day for Silver Bear, he's going to be released.
00:05Wow, now that's a big deal for you guys, isn't it?
00:08It absolutely is, that is our major goal.
00:10So how long has he been here?
00:12He's been here for about three to four weeks.
00:15That's exactly what everybody here at Friends of the Koala represents.
00:18It represents successes like this, where an animal comes in injured,
00:22could never have survived in the wild.
00:24They've nurtured him through the rescue, rehabilitate,
00:29and today's the day he gets released.
00:31Got our catching towels.
00:34OK.
00:40Now that it's time to release, we're using towels to gently guide
00:44Silver Bear to a spot where he can be safely captured.
00:54All the checks have been done, and now it's time to hit the road.
01:05We've just left Friends of the Koala Hospital.
01:09We've got our little fellow in front of us here that's just about to be
01:13released back into the wild.
01:15So really, really cool to be driving along towards the pinnacle of a very,
01:22very successful mission.
01:31Well, here we are, but you can see literally how fragmented this ecosystem is.
01:36But it looks like there's some big trees here.
01:38Let's go and see if this is appropriate.
01:47Interesting how much goes into just selecting the release tree.
01:50It's got to be the right species.
01:51It's got to be the right distance from the road.
01:53It's got to be the right size.
01:54And Maria's been out here this morning selecting a tree.
01:57We're only a couple of hundred yards from where this koala was actually picked up.
02:00So probably the right territory.
02:03We think we found the right tree.
02:04Now we're going to go and get the koala and send him on his way.
02:14Our koalas are a highly territorial animal.
02:17So all of the adult animals that we do release have to be ideally released
02:23into the same tree that they have been rescued from.
02:28If that's not possible, we do have a tiny bit of flexibility,
02:31and we can choose maybe a smaller tree, especially if they've
02:34been in care for a little while.
02:36If we have picked them up on the roadside,
02:39obviously we don't want to put them back in the roadside.
02:42So we do find landholders that are willing to have them on their land nearby.
03:12We've just watched this little guy get released back into the wild.
03:30A few weeks ago, he came in having been hit by a motor vehicle
03:34and certainly wouldn't have survived in the wild.
03:37He's been rescued.
03:38He's been rehabilitated.
03:40And today he's been released.
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