Meet Billa, the young koala at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve who on Thursday made a few tentative steps towards independence from his dad Jed and mum Yellow (named for her yellow ear tag).

From 12 months' on, koalas in the wild start to make short trips from their mother to find their own home range.

Tidbinbilla senior wildlife officer Dr Jenny Pierson said by contrast, Billa has so far spent his life in mum's pouch and also the relative ease of the small breeding enclosure, being brought leaves to eat by staff and having the other koalas around for company.

From Thursday, Billa was being transitioned to the wider, 17-hectare eucalypt forest where he could learn to be away from mum for longer and longer periods and forage on his own.

The area has a predator-proof fence but is otherwise is a return to the wild.

"We're essentially mimicking what mum does and wean him off us bringing him food,'' Dr Pierson said.

While the other free-roaming koalas are identified with ear tags, Bill is going high-tech.

He will be fitted with wireless technology in the ear tag which will send out a signal that can be scanned, locating him through the trees even hundreds of metres away.

It means visitors to Tidbinbilla may be lucky enough to see him more often.

"No matter where he goes, we can find him and let visitors know where he us hanging out,'' she said.

"We're hoping he will spend more time a little further down in the trees because he is used to people.''

While other koalas have been born at Tidbinbilla, Billa is the first to go through the transition process.

Due to the limited size of the forest where the koalas are kept, female koalas put into the free-ranging area are fitted with a contraceptive implant in a bid to control numbers.

"Koalas tend to eat themselves out of house and home so we don't want the area to become too overpopulated,'' she said.

Billa was named after Tidbinbilla by a two-year-old girl via a competition held through the Tidbinbilla Facebook page.