 to get around its mother’s pouch.
You might be shocked to learn that the tiny joey makes its way from the birth canal to the pouch without any help from its mother. The joey climbs up through the fur on the mother’s abdomen to the pouch opening. Once inside the mother’s pouch, it attaches itself to one of the two milk teats, which swells to fill its mouth. For the first few months of life, the joey stays inside the pouch and drinks only the mother’s pouch. Over these few months, they grow, develop eyes, ears, and fur. By about seven months of age, the joey can leave the pouch for longer and longer periods.
That might seem incredibly gross, but “pap” is the proper name given to a particular type of poo that mother koalas feed to joeys in a month or so before they become mature enough to eat eucalyptus leaves. Pap is smooth and runny, and it provides the microorganisms that need to populate the joey’s intestinal tract before it can digest the leaves. Koala joeys are not born with this specific bacterium, so for it to eat and digest the tough and fibrous eucalyptus leaves, it has to be passed on from the mom to the baby.
After spending about six months drinking milk, the joey will start spending short periods out of the pouch and nuzzling its nose around. This movement is what stimulates the production of pap. Before leaving the mother’s pouch and devouring an adult diet, they stay in the pap for a few weeks, perhaps a month. They must establish enough bacteria. Imagine your mother feeding you poop. Whether it was full of probiotics or not, the authorities would probably take you away from her permanently. However, koalas don’t call feeding poop to their kids child abuse. They call it love.
19. Mother Koalas Kick Their Young Out Of their Home Range
After about six months of age, joeys leave the mother’s pouch and ride around on her back, though they return to the bag to drink the mother’s milk. They continue doing so until they are too large to fit inside it. Joeys remain with their mothers for one to three years, usually depending on when they have another joey. Once they leave their mothers, they have to find their own home range. Often, they search for a field that belonged to a koala that is now deceased and left behind an area of eucalyptus trees on which it can forage. They aren’t allowed to stay in the mother’s range.
Some koala joeys leave their mothers at the ripe age of 12 months. They do so to try to find their own home ranges. That’s when life begins to get harder for these young koalas because they now have to find their own territory. This new territory has to be somewhere with the right tree species with tasty gum leaves to eat and somewhere near other koalas. There are also many other factors to consider when choosing a new home range. The koala joeys have to consider a location safe from threats such as habitat destruction, cars, and dogs.
18. Koalas Eat Their Weight In Food Every Two Weeks
Koalas weigh about 14 kilograms each, and every day, they eat ½ to 1 full kilogram of food. That means that every fortnight, they eat their entire weight in food. However, they don’t have chubby little stomachs to show for their voracious eating. They eat almost nothing but eucalyptus leaves, which are low in nutrients and difficult to digest. They eat nothing but salad, which may make them bloated and constipated, but they won’t gain weight off of it. Koalas have to consume large amounts of the leaves because they are so devoid of nutrients that their needs can only be met by engorging themselves.
As nocturnal animals, koalas can consume all of their daily foods in about three to four hours. The eucalyptus leaves are the primary source of a koala’s diet, and its digestive system has uniquely adapted to break down these harsh leaves. Koalas are incredibly picky eaters. However, on rare occasions, they will branch out of their comfort zone and eat from other Australian natives. These eucalyptus-eating Australian icons don’t absorb many nutrients in their diets or spend too much time consuming so they can maintain a healt