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 Kwila is Cocoa's third baby, and first female baby. Kwila is pronounced 'kweela'. Kwila became independent 2-3 weeks earlier than Cocoa did, missing out on the care and protection of her mother during that phase of her development. Male brushtails appear to stay with their mothers considerably longer than females (possibly as much as an extra month or so). Despite that, we remain hopeful about Kwila's chances. The night Cocoa died, Kwila travelled a long, difficult path to one of the nextboxes (completely on her own). The next day, a wildlife carer came to have a look at Kwila, and assessed that Kwila had a better chance to try and survive here than to be caged at a wildlife facility and released later in another place. From the first time I observed Kwila in a nestbox with Cocoa, it struck me that she seemed particularly independent. She was eager to leave the nestbox before Cocoa was ready, and she even went outside briefly a couple of times on her own before the two left the box for the evening. 29/09/07: Kwila's behaviours indicate that she is taking her mother's territory for her own, or at least that is how it seems to us. Kwila main page |