What Is a Baby Koala Bear Called Joey
Apologies, because after you're washed reading this, ambrosial baby koalas might not await so ambrosial anymore.
On a recent visit to Wild Life Sydney Zoo to test-ride the new Wild Flight feel, I discovered something super gross about these beautiful animals... and if I have to suffer through the burden of this knowledge, so does everyone else.
(Information technology's not too late for you to stop reading, and carry on pretending koalas are cuddly-wuddly balls of fuzz and that nature isn't totally bloodcurdling.)
Babe koalas eat their own mothers' poo.
Not just any poo — a particularly made, flossy, extra "moisture" kind of poo, called pap. The but advisable response to that is:
And this isn't i of those "facts" that'due south constantly repeated on the internet even though it's total B.S. (Ducks' quacks do repeat, FYI.) Caroline Monro, Wild Life'southward principal koala keeper, confirmed koala joeys go through a poo-eating stage when they're about five or six months erstwhile, and that it's as gross as it sounds.
"Information technology tin can look really disgusting considering the joeys use their mouth to stimulate the mother's cloaca to produce the pap," she told ninemsn Pickle. "And it'south quite wet. Information technology gets everywhere."
Nathan Rupert/Flickr
Simply while eating pap is gross (so, and then gross), it'due south vital to koalas' survival.
"Pap contains special gut bacteria that koala joeys need" to survive on their highly specialised nutrition of eucalyptus leaves, Monro explained.
"The leaves are really hard to digest, they're tough and fibrous," she said. "So in one case the joey feeds on pap it allows them to go that gut bacteria into their tummy, so they tin then digest these eucalyptus leaves."
If a baby koala isn't fed pap — if its mother is injured, or abandons her joey — it tin can't ever survive on eucalyptus leaves as an adult nutrition. Some rescue organisations can artificially feed pap to joeys, but this involves collecting the stuff from another female koala ("which is even grosser," Monro added, with a laugh).
Chris Capell/Flickr
Though koalas are one of the virtually popular animals at Wild Life Sydney, and at many other zoos around the earth, Monro says it's rare to meet visitors who know about their, uh, unusual feeding addiction.
"People are generally pretty grossed out [when they learn about pap]," she said. "Kids find it hilarious."
But she believes pap-feeding merely makes a unique Commonwealth of australia animal even more remarkable – and no less ambrosial.
"It shows how they've evolved to survive in such a harsh climate in Australia and I recall that'south really cool," she said. "I don't recall it ruins their cuteness."
Information technology's true that it'south impossible to ruin koalas' cuteness... even after you read these bonus unpleasant facts well-nigh them:
Koalas smell terrible
Jo Christian Oterhals/Flickr
Well, the males do, at least. While nearly female and juvenile koalas scent kind of like eucalyptus cough drops, the men throw off an odor that can politely be described as "pungent".
"The males have a scent gland on their chest they rub against trees to mark their territory and to attract females at convenance fourth dimension," Monro told Pickle.
Koalas have chlamydia
Wayne Butterworth/Flickr
In some parts of Australia, up to 90 percent of the local koala population is infected with this sexually transmitted disease (though it's not the aforementioned strain that infects humans). Experts aren't sure why koalas seem particularly vulnerable to chlamydia, which tin cause blindness and infertility.
Monro cautioned that koalas you see at zoos are highly unlikely to take chlamydia. "Information technology'southward by and large brought on in stressful situations in the wild," she said. "In the zoo industry it's quite rare if you lot take salubrious animals and make clean exhibits and fresh nutrient."
Koalas' brains are teeny
Andrew Dyson/Flickr
Koala brains only account for almost 0.ii percent of their body weight, one of the smallest ratios of any marsupial. (For humans, the brain accounts for almost 2 percent of full weight.) Koalas' small brains may have evolved to conserve energy, or but considering they don't need all that thinking power anyway.
"They sleep for about 20 hours a twenty-four hour period. When they're awake all they do is maybe move to another tree and then eat," said Monro. "So they don't need much brainpower or be super intelligent to deport out the tasks they need to survive."
The Wild Flying Experience is now open up at Sydney Wild Life Zoo.
Source: https://www.nine.com.au/entertainment/viral/koala-pap/ebd5f1d7-9ca4-42a1-8213-b15a9c7f2e07
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