• Miffy the koala is carrying a joey in breeding success
• First koala joey to be born at Yanchep National Park in 15 years
• National Park rangers and staff keeping watch over joey’s development

A breeding program at a national park north of Perth is celebrating success with a new female koala already carrying a joey, 10 months after arriving.

Seven-and-a-half-year-old ‘Miffy’, originally from Ballarat Wildlife Park, Victoria, was unveiled to the WA public last October after a seven-week quarantine period.

She arrived along with two 18-month-old brothers ‘Louie’ and ‘Franklin Doogsie’, from Cleland Wildlife Park, in South Australia.

Now, ten months after settling into their new home, Miffy has successfully produced a joey with Louie. The joey will be named at a later date.

National Park rangers had been hoping the pair would breed and in recent months spotted that Miffy was getting bigger in her pouch area. With a joey confirmed several weeks ago, this week, the park has enjoyed the first glimpses of the joey. 

Cameras with infrared capability have captured footage of the joey headfirst out of the pouch whilst Miffy fed. The joey is approximately five months old.

Vets from Perth Zoo will be assessing the health of the new arrival over the coming months as park rangers monitor Miffy and her joey.

Koalas were first introduced into Yanchep National Park in 1938. The last one born in the park was 15-year-old Koodah, who is still resident in the koala colony, having descended from koalas brought to Yanchep from South Australia in the late 1980s.

The park’s koala colony serves as a healthy satellite breeding population, in support of wider national conservation efforts for the species. They can be viewed from the Koala Boardwalk which winds through the carefully managed koala habitat. Yanchep’s koala attraction is best viewed between the hours of 8am to 4.30pm and is open daily.

Comments attributed to Yanchep National Park Senior Ranger Phillipa Jarvis Carboon:

“The team in Yanchep is ecstatic. It's what we've been working towards very definitely in all earnest for about the last six years. So it's a really big achievement.

“It was a day that we weren't necessarily sure would happen. I'm stoked. I'm so excited. It’s just brilliant.”