 don’t have; more folds generally correspond to higher intelligence. However, koalas’ brains are as smooth as walnuts. They can’t help it. They’re just stupid.
According to the experts, koalas lack intellectual abilities. Despite looking extremely cute and cuddly, they are considered neither smart nor intelligent. A lot of basic examples confirm the lack of intelligence within koalas. For instance, they are usually not aware of their surroundings. They hardly pay attention to any unusual event that is happening within their surrounding areas. Their only preference is to sleep as much as possible. If it rains, koalas will not be bothered to move to some shade of branches to avoid it. Instead, they will continue to lay down in the rain. Even when there are brush fires, koalas will not leave their trees unless they get incredibly close.
There are hundreds of varieties of eucalyptus trees in Australia, but koalas will only eat the leaves of about 30. Moreover, the 30 that they are willing to eat are some of the most nutrient-poor varieties they could indulge in. However, they have to be somewhat aware of how poor their diets are, as they are known to fill in the gaps by eating dirt. After all, the soil has the calcium that the eucalyptus leaves lack. So you see, they are toddlers that are raging through the Terrible Twos and would rather eat dirt than a home-cooked meal.
When a koala is seeking the perfect eucalyptus tree, they evaluate the tree’s size, the neighborhood it is found in, and the taste of the leaves that matter the most. They are very fussy eaters and have extreme preferences for different types of gum leaves. Within a particular area, as few as one, and generally no more than two or three eucalypt species will be regularly browsed. These are more commonly referred to as primary browse trees. The variety of other species, including some non-eucalypts, are only scanned occasionally or used for just sitting or sleeping. Since different eucalyptus species grow in different parts, koalas in different areas may have slightly different diets.
Koalas eat as much as a full kilogram of eucalyptus leaves per day; in fact, they don’t eat much of anything else. But eucalyptus leaves are poisonous to them! They have a unique organ inside their digestive systems to extract the poison so that it doesn’t kill them. They have very long digestive systems to accommodate their relatively poor diet. However, if they eat too many eucalyptus leaves, even their well-adapted bowels won’t save them; they really can eat themselves to death. It’s not unlike a person going to McDonald’s every day and convincing themselves that the cheeseburgers and milkshakes are healthy.
To safely process the leaves’ toxic chemicals, koalas are equipped with the unique microbes in their digestive tracts. Not only are these bugs able to break down the poisonous compounds, but the microorganisms can be passed from mother to baby koala. These specific microbes allow koalas the ability to flush the toxins out extremely quickly from their systems. That is the only way to eat their way through pounds of leaves every day without getting incredibly sick. Unlike koalas, if a normal herbivore set out on the all eucalyptus leaves diet, it will get gravely ill and eventually die.
When people are asked to picture a koala, one of the first images that comes to mind is one of them hugging onto a tree trunk. However, clinging to the side of the tree isn’t just a passing hobby for the furry little creature. You may think that koalas enjoy hugging the trunks of acacia trees, but they’re holding onto them to cool themselves off. The acacia trees serve as a kind of temperature-control device for hot summer days; as the weather heats up, the koalas go further down the trunks to even colder regions. It is a handy way to get rid of heat on a sweltering day.
Given that koalas spend so much time in trees, nobody wondered why they hugged the tree trunks. Many people thought they were taking a break on a more stable spot after eating leaves in the branches. While the region is rela