Random Facts That Will Absolutely Ruin Your Perception of Koalas (9 items)

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  (#1) Koalas Are Plagued By A Highly Infectious Strain Of Chlamydia

  In recent years, the koala population of Australia has been ravaged by a particularly contagious strain of Chlamydia. Professor of infectious diseases at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne David Wilson told the BBC that about half the koalas in Australia are infected.

  The disease is very painful for a koala, causing “blindness, infertility, and an infection known as ‘dirty tail’.” Dirty tail is actually a cutesy name for a vicious inflammation of the urinary tract that is so painful it can be fatal.

  Though scientists have tried to cure Chlamydia among koalas, a combination of their hyper-sensitive gut microbiome and hyper-vigilante digestive system have made the disease incurable. Many of the medicines people use for Chlamydia have been ineffective among koalas because they flush it out of their system as if it was poison from the eucalyptus they eat. Other medicines, however, have also proven more problematic for koalas as they affect their gut microbiome and make it impossible for them to digest eucalyptus.

  Even more unnerving, koalas can transmit Chlamydia to any humans that come into contact with their urine, and it's not unheard of that koalas will urinate directly onto people. Meaning there are about 40,000 koalas roaming the bush in Western Australia who can potentially give people an STI just by peeing.
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  (#7) The Make An Unexpected Noise That Terrifies Most Listeners

  If you harbor the illusion that koalas make a sweet cooing noise when they need to get someone’s attention, you’re way off base. A koala’s call is much more upsetting than you’d like to think. Koalas make multiple sounds that range greatly in pitch. Most commonly for both males and females, they produce "a sickening cry like a scream of a baby" when in distress. Alternatively, males create a deep bellow followed by a sequence of choppy clicks. This deep guttural sound is made primarily by males trying to call the attention of potential mates during mating season or when intimidating other males.

  This sound, however, doesn't follow the common expectation for such a small animal. The frequency is more typical of an animal the size of an elephant rather than a marsupial that weighs approximately between 9 - 20 lbs due to the size of their vocal chords. But koalas are special; they have descended larynxes, meaning their vocal boxes are relatively lower in their bodies compared to other animals. The descended larynx extends their vocal tracts, allowing them to create a baritone sound. The resonance is then further amplified by cavities in their noses and mouths.

   
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  (#2) They Can Be More Aggressive Than A Crocodile

  In 2006, a group of four people broke into a zoo in Australia with the intention of stealing a koala and selling it for drugs. When they broke into the koala pen, however, they found it was "too vicious" to steal.

  Zookeeper Wil Kemp explained, "apparently [the koala] scratched the sh*t out of them... The blokes have quite a lot of scratches and lacerations caused by the koala.” As a result of the unexpected attack, the thieves found it easier to take a four-foot-long, 90 pound crocodile. Even though they had to drag it over a security fence, that was still easier than successfully nabbing a koala.
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  (#9) They’re Not Hugging You, They’re Regulating Body Temperature

  For years people have marveled at the adorable little koala bear as he or she hugged a tree tightly. It might be adorable, but it’s mostly just a means of air conditioning. The koala hugs the acacia tree in order to cool themselves on hot summer days.

  “As it got hotter the koalas went farther down the trees and started to really hug onto the tree trunks," said Michael Kearney, a member of the team that made the discovery. "That seemed strange to us until we figured out that the trees are a bit cooler.”
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  (#5) Koalas Don't Have The Brain Capacity To Learn Anything New

  Koala brains were described as “ridiculously small” by two researchers Frederic Wood Jones and Stanley D. Porteus in 1929. They were researching and published a study on comparative brain sizes in the animal kingdom. Their observation was glossed over by much of the scientific community for decades until Neuro-Anatomists John Haight and John Nelson made their own study comparing the brain sizes of 33 different marsupials. They found koalas had a brain size 60 percent small than predicted for a marsupial of its size and their brains were smooth.

  A smooth brain is indicative of little to no folding, a development found in more advanced animals. They account for the brains quick growth in relation to the skull containing it. The skull may not continue to grow on an evolutionary level as quickly as the brain. So to increase the capacity of gray matter to keep up with increasing neurons in the inner brain without going beyond the capacity of skull, brains develop fissures, sulci, and gyri which increases the total volume of the brain. Simply put: humans have relatively larger brains and more brain folds than any other species and it’s linked to our intelligence as a species. Dolphins have brain folds. Capuchin monkeys have brain folds. Koalas do not.

  Haight and Nelson thought size and shape of a Koala brain made it a slow and clumsy animal, but more recent research has suggested otherwise. The smoothness of their brain is more indicative of the behaviors they exhibit. Koalas sleep, find food, eat, and sometimes mate. They haven’t needed to learn more behaviors for the last 15 million years.
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  (#4) They Are Fast Enough To Chase An ATV

  Dairy farmer Ebony Churchill was just trying to bring in the cows for their daily milking when she was chased by an excited koala. Even as she accelerated her four-wheeler, the little terror managed to keep pace and refused to give up.

  As Churchill ended her run, she was forced to stop the ATV. She did, and immediately hopped off her four-wheeler only to find that the koala’s real prey was the rear tire of the transport, not her.

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