Archer had a tough start to life after his mother sadly abandoned him. Staples stepped in and provided a human care pouch for the cute little marsupial and for the first few weeks got out of bed three times a night to bottle-feed him. Archer was then introduced to the Koala Sanctuary at Featherdale and has become the face of the park’s individual animal sponsorship program. Interest in him as been so strong he has his own public profile on social media and was also voted ‘Australia’s Cutest Animal’. Archer has appeared on television on numerous occasions.

Staples’ dedication and passion for the conservation of, and education around, Australian native species is unrelenting and this is evident through how many species are now at the park. From the Yellow Footed Rock Wallaby to the Tasmanian Devil, from quolls to quokkas, cockatoos to honeyeaters and from wombats to koalas, the number of species has grown with over 2,000 animals in the park including over 280 species.

In 2013 Chad was instrumental in securing a partnership with GE Health, which resulted in the donation of a state-of-the-art diagnostic ultrasound machine. This machine, often also used by other zoos such as Taronga, helps to identify fertility and breeding availability as well as injuries and illness. It is used across the species but often for the koala community with females being scanned to check fertility and pregnancy. There are currently over 40 koalas at Featherdale and in its’ 49 years of operation, the Park has successfully bred over 210 koalas.

He is often requested now to appear on national media and has his own highly successful Zookeeper Chad social media pages @zookeeper_chad.