Most of you will be familiar with the Gould plate of the owl that he calls the “Great Owl of the Brushes” (an old name for the denser Australian forests). As with some earlier illustrations the feet are wrongly represented with 3 toes
forward. Recently I needed to put name to the prey item, my conclusion being it is a very young koala, going by the tufted ears, feet, and absence of tail. The inset is an adult koala from Gould’s ‘Mammals’. HANZAB indicates that koalas are an occasional
prey item, although I would assume only young ones as adults would be too large (4-9kg, compare 700-1100gm for a ringtail). I wonder if owls have been a problem for koala young at Tidbinbilla.
