
The visitor would love to pose with one with its arms around
its neck; but in Sydney, holding a koala is no longer permissible.


Most koalas have very soft thick grey fur and fluffy ears
that give them that “teddy bear” appearance. Adult koalas sitting on the ground
look approximately the same size and shape as an 18-month old human toddler.
Koala fur is considered the most insulated of all marsupial fur and is
remarkably waterproof. Koala eyes are brown and cat-like with their noses being
prominent, black and leathery. Their sense of hearing and smell is excellent
and critical to their survival. Koalas greet and recognize others by their
smell. They use their highly sensitive nose to locate eucalypt leaf that is
choice and palatable. Weight of males is about 11.6 kilos, females 7.8 kilos.

The word koala comes from the aboriginal “no drink.” When climatic
conditions are good, eucalyptus leaf carries enough moisture to sustain koalas’
daily needs. In dry season however, the koala needs go to ground to find water
because the leaf moisture content can be very low. This is one reason why most
koala populations tend to be near water courses where tree moisture is better.
Their day is usually made up of 19 hours of sleep in the
eucalyptus tree; the remaining five hours are spent in locating food and eating
it.

In Sydney, I was fortunate to go to a preserve where koalas
were in their trees resting, but at a particular time, they were brought down
to be viewed and photographed. I was able to capture the face up close, as
shown here. My model was not overly excited, and would have preferred to finish
her beauty nap. As soon as our photo shoot was completed, she was put back in
her location in the tree, where she chewed a leaf or two, pooped, and then went
back to sleep.
Australian friends presented me with Certificate of Adoption
of a wild koala. She had been brought to the Koala Hospital from her wild
habitat in the woods with a conjunctive eye infection, called Chlamydia, in
both eyes. Her name was Ellenborough Nancy, and her photo proved she was a
beauty. Her bio said she came from a region deeply forested and sparsely
populated; a region in which koalas rarely encountered human beings. This made
her particularly wild and less accepting of humans, even though the treatment
was designed to help them.

The consensus was she
was neither a happy camper nor a cooperative one, and would swipe at as many
volunteers as she could if she felt they
had overstayed their welcome. She was eventually cured, but was wild to the
very end. On the day of her release, she was brought into the treatment room
for customary final weigh-in. When the canvas bag in which she was placed was
put on the scales, she poked her head out the top and the handlers did their
best to contain her just long enough to get the scale reading. The consensus
was “The sooner we got this wild thing back to her wilds, the better.” She was
returned to her home (tree) cured, and was sighted by a volunteer a week later
in the same area happily munching a leaf in the same tree in which she had been
released.
I have the certificate displayed in my home, and point with
delight to other friends that an adopted daughter awaits my visit to
Ellenborough.