�
Koalas ⟶ Koala climbing at The Koala Hospital
Port Macquarie is the place to celebrate one of Australia’s most iconic animals - the koala. Here you can not only get up close and personal with our furry friends at Billabong Zoo (see page 11), you can also visit the world’s first koala hospital, or take the Hello Koalas Sculpture Trail to see over 60+ beautiful koala sculptures.
Koalas make great Mums The gestation period is approximately 35 days and at birth, the unfurred, blind ‘pinkie’ crawls unaided from the birth canal, up through the fur and into the vertical pouch and attaches to one of the two teats. Once their eyes are opened, the joeys detach from the teat but remain in the pouch for around four to five months, growing and becoming fully furred. Anywhere from 250 grams weight onwards, the joey will become active, occasionally popping its head out and sniffing the air. Around this time the joey begins to stimulate its mother’s cloaca to produce a greenish substance called ‘pap’. This is passed down from the caecum, a specialised section of the intestinal tract where fermentation of the leaf occurs, for the joeys to eat. The ‘pap’ contains vital micro organisms (bacteria) that inoculate the joey’s gut system to enable them to digest eucalypt leaf. Without pap, a joey cannot eat eucalypt leaf and will not survive. From around six months of age, the joey will start emerging onto the mother's belly and by eight months the joey becomes a ‘back young’, staying on or near the mother. By 12 months, the koala is usually weaned. Female koalas are excellent mothers, and are highly protective of their young.
54
DISCOVER WINTER 2021
