Cuddly Koalas?
Along with the kangaroo they’re one of the most recognizeable Australian marsupials and folks line up at zoos for the chance to hold one in their arms and get their photos taken.
For an animal that sleeps 20 hours a day, that’s not a bad gig.
But one thing they leave out of the popular information brochures is that koala babies grow up eating shit. I was rather taken aback by this news, discovered last night on a Wild Australasia program on telly.
The reason behind it is because koalas mainly eat eucalyptus leaves, and these leaves are quite tough and toxic to most animals. Koalas have teeth and stomachs of iron. Of course, you don’t crawl out of mama’s pouch with all these attributes, so you need to take things in stages, kind of like a vaccination. That’s where the shit comes in. The baby eats poo to ingest some of the squiggly things that help break down gum leaves so when it gets older it’ll be able to handle its diet.
It all makes perfect natural sense when it gets explained to you, but it’s difficult to get rid of the image of a scrawny baby koala shoving his face into its mum’s bum and looking up with crap all over his face.
Still wanna hold one?
By Chris | Permalink
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My cat used to love licking ear wax off your finger. He’s dead now. Hope those two facts aren’t related.
Hi Chris,
It’s Mad! I just know that baby Koala eat their mama’s poo!!!
Well, they eat a lot of eucalyptus leaves which is use to make eucalyptus oil. So their shit won’t be dangerous, will it?
Chris, I’m coming to Queensland on April.
Will you be still arround in Brisbane?
Don’t see why not, mate. Give me a shout when you get here.
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Eeeeeeekkkkk I had picked up a stuffed toy kola from sydney airport, the label which i discovered on landing back home read “made in china” Cant look my baby kola in the eye anymore, is this how it grew up…
But to make this post even more gross, my cat, used to lick clean the poo-poo of all her kittens, till they were weaned.