Koala Windows -

They installed five prototypes. Within a week, a female koala named "Bumpy" (for the scar on her nose) was photographed climbing one, pausing at a ledge, and using it to cross over the tracks without ever touching the ground. The panel had a small, circular opening near the top—a "window" through which a koala could observe the other side before committing. Reyes, an amateur photographer, captured Bumpy peering through that hole, her furry face framed like a portrait. The image went viral locally. "Koala Window" stuck.

It started in the early 2010s on the eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, where the Brisbane-Sydney rail line cuts through a remnant patch of eucalyptus forest. Koalas in this region—already stressed by habitat fragmentation and chlamydia—faced a new, silent predator: the 8:15 AM express train. Collisions were rising. A koala, when startled on the ground, doesn't run. It climbs. And the nearest vertical structure was often a steel rail signal post. koala windows

But the heart of the story remains a single email. After the bushfire, Dr. Lin wrote to Reyes: "Bumpy made it. She used the window three times in one night. Her joey was with her. She showed him how." They installed five prototypes

But the real innovation came when Lin asked a simple question: "What do they see through the window?" She realized that if the view from the climbing panel showed only more fragmented habitat, the koala would simply climb back down. So the team began orienting the windows toward intact vegetation corridors. They even experimented with scent—smearing eucalyptus oil on the inside rim of the window to suggest that the destination was worthwhile. It started in the early 2010s on the

Reyes replied: "So we didn't build a crossing. We built a lesson."