Get That Koala Out of the Road! By Alice G “♬ I had the time of my life ♬ and I never felt this way before ♬ and I swear this is –” “Be quiet Jessie,” said Julia as we drove to the mall on our family vacation in Australia. My mom and dad had gone scuba diving on the famous heart shaped reef. So, that left my older twin sisters, Jessie and Julia, and of course, me, Chloe. Right now I am stuck in the back seat listening to them bicker. “I wish you would just turn the radio off so we can hear the story we got from the library. Chloe will read it to us. Right Chloe?” inquired Julia. “Ah, if you want control of the radio then let me drive.” Jessie snuck in cleverly. Not likely. Julia loves to drive. But, while they argued, I realized that Julia forgot to watch the road and just in time shouted, “Look out, the car ahead just stopped!” then I scrunched my eyes shut and said a prayer. It must have been answered because I am still alive! And I think I am going to be deaf from the horn beep beep beeeeeeeeeping away at the car ahead. “Nice save Chloe. Without you I would have hit that car,” complimented Julia. “Yeah, but why isn’t this guy moving!!!” shouted Jessie, as she reached over and slammed on the horn. “Let’s get out and see,” I suggested. “Yeah, I need to stretch my legs too,” added Julia. And so we got out to see what was the matter. At the front of a long, long line of cars we saw the cause of the traffic jam. It was a koala, sitting in the middle of the road! As I stared at the beautiful creature in the road I remembered the Koalas description plate at the zoo. Koalas have thick, soft fur. Their big, round ears have long, white hairs on the tips. They have a large, dark, leathery nose and beady eyes. Their small mouth opens very wide. And the paws are very complex in order to climb. Saying Koalas climb is not a rumor. People start rumors about Koalas around points of confusion. Some say Koalas have no tail. Some say they smell of cough drops. Are these true or false? What do you think? Picture yourself in a small space that squeezes you to a sticky surface. Suddenly you feel like you are flying. You swoop up then down. And then, thwuck. You hit something hard. And you wish for the billionth time, “Would my mom STOP jumping? It hurts!” This is the life of a baby Koala. They live in their mothers pouch for months then just decides to move to her back. Brand new baby koalas are the size and shape of a jellybean, and will grow to 25-30 inches in length, weighing about 15 pounds as an adult. So how do their parents keep track of where they are when they are small? Simple! They keep them in their downward opening pouches, as apposed to a Kangaroo. Theirs open upward. But why do Koalas open downward? A mother koalas’ pouch is like a mitten, it opens at the bottom so your hand can go in, and is sealed at the top to keep out the snow and cold. It is made of a rough texture and is elastic so the baby stays in place. But why not open upward? It would be just as easy. Or would it? It would actually be less convenient. In the seven months a baby spends in the pouch it is still quite small when it leaves. After 30 weeks of drinking its mother’s milk, it still can’t digest its own food so the baby feeds off of pre-digested food called pap. Pap is a pre-digested substance that comes from a small opening directly underneath the mother’s tail. It is easy for the baby to pop its head out and have the food right there. When I first saw a mother Koala feeding its baby and I couldn’t understand what the mom was doing. I was clinging to my mom’s leg and begging her to take me away from this cage! Once she calmed me down and explained to me what the mom was doing I asked why I saw a baby on its mothers back in the last cage. Shouldn’t this baby be on the back? My mom told me this; “One reason is more obvious than the other, sweetie. The more complex reason is the temptation of the scent of the eucalyptus leaves. The baby Koala just can’t resist! The babies are ready to eat food that is not already digested. I know this probably makes no sense.” (I was only 5.) She continued, “The other reason I think you’ll understand better. The pouch is on the stomach and, since koalas tend to jump from tree to tree, the pouch (and baby) gets the first bump! See? ” Then she demonstrated with my stuffed Koala from the gift shop. The baby on the back has a good deal. Much better than a baby in the pouch. A gentle ride and a bug free life! Koalas’ thick fur tends to be a popular flea and fly attraction. But eucalyptus, the meal of a koala, is like bug spray! The oil of the leaf rubs off on the koala’s fur, and it not only keeps the fur in top condition, but also gives it a cough drop smell that is nauseating to bugs. Their meal is their food supply, moisturizer, and pest control! If only I could use a certain shampoo that kept my hair silky and mosquitoes away too! Speaking of fur, its dappled appearance is a technique called camouflage. The dappled colors blend in with the shadows of the leaves so predators looking up would see nothing but leaves. Their fur is grayish red and dappled. The farther north they live the thinner their fur is and the farther south the thicker. During the trip to the zoo we went to the Predator Defender Center at the zoo. They were doing a program on koalas. The person, Mary, said this. “Since they do have to worry about predators, koalas need a keen sense of smell and hearing to figure out where the predators are. They must position themselves and their young in order to be camouflaged. Their ears and noses are so large so that they can sense danger. Their sense of smell is so good that they can tell where the nearest food tree is and how many koalas are already there. This skill is helpful because Koalas are solitary animals so they do not like to share their tree. The only way there could be three or four Koalas found in a tree is if it is great enough in size. They can still stay far away from each other. But more than 5 is two many. So if a mother smells 4, then she knows she and her child will not be welcome and should keep moving.” I raised my hand, and once I was how many are there? Is it just their incredible sense or something more?” And Mary explained, “The Koala has a scent patch on its chest and each Koalas scent is different. So when a Koala comes to a tree it rubs its scent patch on it so passing Koalas can tell, ‘There are already 4 Koalas in this tree. I must bring my baby to a different tree to feed.’ Do you understand?” Living in trees is not easy. You want to fit into nooks and crannies. So, a tail like monkeys just won’t do! But they need a tail for balance. If there was a store for tails then the Koala would be looking in the small, short and stubby section. I would too, the shorter the better in my opinion. I wouldn’t want to start chasing it or accidentally bit it when I eat. A Koala also needs good grip to be hanging in trees all day. So their hands are properly set up. The front paw is divided into two groups, 2 thumbs and 3 fingers, handy for climbing and grasping. The back paws have two groups as well, but with 1 thumb and 4 fingers instead. The thumb is for holding things. The second and third fingers are joined together for grooming, and the fourth and fifth are for climbing as well. Both paws have rough pads on the bottoms for griping and to soften the landing when the koala leaps. The huge, sharp claws sprouting from the koalas toes are used to help grip, climb, and defend it from predators. Suddenly a cold breeze blew the flashback away. I focused on what my sisters were saying. “Hey, did you know koala means, no drink?” Jessie asked as they stared at the unmoving koala. “Yeah, because the eucalyptus leaves they eat provides all the water they need, right?” replied Julia. “Right, and they eat 11 pounds of it a day, from what I hear. That’s plenty of water.” Jessie countered. It was becoming a fact war. “Koalas aren’t bears but marsupials!” Julia shot back. People were staring. “A marsupial is an animal that carries its baby in its pouch” she challenged. “Like kangaroos.” People were rolling down their windows. “Sitting in the road is an adaptation!” Jessie stopped and gulped, “They get tired of crawling through thick bushes and grasses so they like the road. And it is always a good place to warm up with no trees to block the sun!” “A baby is only 2 centimeters at birth!” “They sleep for 18 hours a day!” “When they’re not sleeping their eating!” “Their food is poisonous to any other animal! They can eat it thanks to their complex digestive system.” People were getting out of their cars, taking pictures, videos, even the koala was watching! “A koala can run as fast as a rabbit!” screamed Jessie at the top of her lungs. That was it, all out of facts. But I had one more. “There are koala crossing signs in Australia,” I barely whispered, pointing to a sign by the road. Everyone turned to look at me, followed my finger, observed the sign, and burst out laughing. Me, my sister, the crowd, and even the koala was making a laughing-like noise (its true, they can.)