Koala name: Jackie Chan

Rescued: 2021 and 2024

Released: 2022 and 2024

Reason Jackie Chan came into care: Initially Jackie Chan came to Port Stephens Koala Hospital as a very young koala, weighing just over 2kg. While some koalas in the wild will naturally move away from their mothers at this weight, Jackie was still too little to be completely on his own and needed a safe space to learn to be a koala. After receiving a health check, as the veterinary team do with every koala admitted to the Hospital, he was put into a yard where he was able to safely learn how to be a koala and gain the confidence, he needed to be a self-assured male koala in the wild.

Jackie was released in 2022 at one of the local release sites, where he has plenty of other koalas to interact with.

In 2024, one of the volunteers that live near the release site noted a koala sitting in the tree that was showing signs of urogenital chlamydia (referred to as ‘wet bottom’). In consultation with our phone operators and rescuers, the koala was brought in and identified as Jackie Chan (all koalas are microchipped the same as a cat or dog).

The veterinary team gave him a health check which confirmed that he did have urogenital chlamydia.

Treatment provided: Once Jackie was in care, he was provided with daily antibiotics and repeat health checks to ensure the chlamydia infection cleared. Once given a clean bill of health from the veterinary team, he was released back to the same location from where he was rescued.

Estimated cost of treatment while in care; $5,000 (multiple times in care)