Some Karmic Koalas in Australia

[earthpigg]

This was a forwarded e-mail I got. Thought I would share.


AT 120 DEGREES IN AUSTRALIA , IT WAS SO HOT FOR A WEEK THAT KOALAS
WERE ASKING PEOPLE FOR WATER. IT'S NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE.

look at pics 1 and 2


ONE WENT TO A HOUSE TO TRY TO HIDE FROM THE HEAT AND TO GET A BIT OF SHADE AND HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE OWNER GAVE HIM SOMETHING TO DRINK. IT'S REALLY CUTE.

3, 4, 5, 6 (6 will be in next post)

[earthpigg]

aaaaaaand after you look at six:


"Until one has loved an animal, part of their soul remains unawakened."

[AllRadioisDead]

Ahahaha that's awesome!

[soni1770]

sweet:popcorn:

[Kdar]

wow... So cool!

[aladinonl]

so cute.
i def gonna visit australia one day just to cuddle these animals (can i?)
note: i'm a guy, just can't help it.

[The Real Dave]

Just gotta love Koalas :D

[u.b.u.n.t.u]

so cute.
i def gonna visit australia one day just to cuddle these animals (can i?)
note: i'm a guy, just can't help it.

They are a wild animal. Best to start of slowly, maybe a plushie Koala?

;)

[NoaHall]

I love how animals have evolved on Australia.

[madhi19]

Anybody ever tried to domesticate them? I see one hell of a great market if it was possible!

[earthpigg]

Anybody ever tried to domesticate them? I see one hell of a great market if it was possible!

can they be made to breed in captivity?

zebras, for example, will not do that so they cannot be domesticated.

and they (like African elephants, but unlike the extinct North American elephants (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolly_mammoth)) instinctively know to fear humans because they evolved next to humans.

i suspect koalas don't know to be afraid of humans, so the remaining question is about breeding in captivity.

[WannabeFantasma]

sooooooooooo cute :D

[LowSky]

Anybody ever tried to domesticate them? I see one hell of a great market if it was possible!

I really doubt it would be possible, Koalas eat a very strict diet of eucalyptus. They also sleep for most of the day. Oddly they also have brains much smaller than their heads suggest, which means that during their evolution something drastically changed, probably relating to their diet. If this never occurred koalas could have been as smart or smarter than many primate species.

[Chilli Bob]

Koalas look cute, but wont make great pets. They can be cuddled at zoos and such for short periods, but in reality are smelly, bad tempered, bitey, scratchy, cannot be toilet trained, and are extremely difficult to care for. They need a huge quantity of leaves of very specific eucalypt trees to eat. Zoos with koalas have staff specifically paid to go out each day and locate food for them. Stick to the stuffed variety.

Kangaroos, on the other hand make great pets. Easy to care for (if you have the room), eat grass, pellets and just about anything, fun to interact with, quite clean (still can't be toilet trained, but dung is nice and dry and easy to sweep up). They do attack you at times though, so you have to know what to do.

I had a pet kangaroo as a kid, it was AWESOME.

[u.b.u.n.t.u]

I had a pet kangaroo as a kid, it was AWESOME.

Please tell me you called it like Hoppy or even Jumpy the Bush Kangaroo! ;)

[Kdar]

They are a wild animal. Best to start of slowly, maybe a plushie Koala?

;)

Practice at home first? :)

[Chilli Bob]

Please tell me you called it like Hoppy or even Jumpy the Bush Kangaroo! ;)

HA! Well guessed! Her name was "Hoppy". Just a minute, I think I saw a photo of her somewhere.


EDIT: Here we go, welcome to Queensland outback circa 1972. She was still a joey then. She got a lot bigger and more aggressive over the next several years. We still had her to my mid-teens. (Sorry for the crappy photo, it's a heavily gimped scan of a badly degraded transparency.)


http://home.iprimus.com.au/goosecreature/hoppy_for_web.jpg

[u.b.u.n.t.u]

HA! Well guessed! Her name was "Hoppy". Just a minute, I think I saw a photo of her somewhere.

Upload a photo of Hoppy?

You know if you randomly click the mouse button really fast, that sounds like Skippy listing the Ubuntu 9.10 terminal commands, all 3 billion of them! ;)


UPDATE

Chilli Bob your Hoppy photo = WIN !

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6857/skippydvd.jpg

[Chilli Bob]

Upload a photo of Hoppy?

You know if you randomly click the mouse button really fast, that sounds like Skippy listing the Ubuntu 9.10 terminal commands, all 3 billion of them! ;)


What's that Skip? The ATI driver needs to be recompiled for the new kernel? And Jimmy's fallen down the well?

[Hwæt]

I love how animals have evolved on Australia.

Australia is definitely a one of a kind place for animals. Such odd and primitive mammals and birds have been able to live there for millions of years without being wiped out by their more advanced competitors.

[u.b.u.n.t.u]

Australia is definitely a one of a kind place for animals. Such odd and primitive mammals and birds have been able to live there for millions of years without being wiped out by their more advanced competitors.

Also this, Wollemia nobilis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wollemia

"The last known fossils of the genus date from approximately 2 million years ago."

[Hwæt]

Also this, Wollemia nobilis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wollemia

"The last known fossils of the genus date from approximately 2 million years ago."

I think I have one of those in a pot outside. They're selling them for about $12 each at Wal-mart.

[u.b.u.n.t.u]

I think I have one of those in a pot outside. They're selling them for about $12 each at Wal-mart.

Cool. They have quite an interesting history and would make a good talking point.

[LowSky]

Australia is definitely a one of a kind place for animals. Such odd and primitive mammals and birds have been able to live there for millions of years without being wiped out by their more advanced competitors.
until these critter came along

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species_in_Australia

note Australia isn't the only place this has occurred
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_invasive_species

[u.b.u.n.t.u]

You can arguably added the dingo to that list. As I understand it, the dingo originated from south east Asia.

Some good information and maps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo

[aladinonl]

Koalas look cute, but wont make great pets. They can be cuddled at zoos and such for short periods, but in reality are smelly, bad tempered, bitey, scratchy, cannot be toilet trained, and are extremely difficult to care for. They need a huge quantity of leaves of very specific eucalypt trees to eat. Zoos with koalas have staff specifically paid to go out each day and locate food for them. Stick to the stuffed variety.

Kangaroos, on the other hand make great pets. Easy to care for (if you have the room), eat grass, pellets and just about anything, fun to interact with, quite clean (still can't be toilet trained, but dung is nice and dry and easy to sweep up). They do attack you at times though, so you have to know what to do.

I had a pet kangaroo as a kid, it was AWESOME.

Thanks for the heads up. It's good read until this point : "dung is nice" ...

[The Real Dave]

Australia is definitely a one of a kind place for animals. Such odd and primitive mammals and birds have been able to live there for millions of years without being wiped out by their more advanced competitors.

The DuckBilled Platypus for example :)


As for domesticating them, I know that plenty zoos have them, but its illegal to keep one as a pet as far as I know. Not the most plentiful of creatures.

Roos on the other hand do make great pets :) A park I stayed in Australia had a pet roo (along with a load of cockatoos), and it was like a dog but smarter. Used hop next to me when I went jogging round the park in the morning. Frigging amazing :) They had reared it since it was tiny, it was a pure pet, not a wild bone in its body. Really sweet tempered, seemed to love leaving kids pet it :)

Its name of course, was Skip :)

[lisati]

I don't recall seeing a kanagaroo during the couple of visits I've made to Oz over the years, but I do remember the previously mentioned TV show. The nearest I can manage to having met Skippy is through a breakfast cereal.
http://www.sanitarium.co.nz/media/1475992/products_skippynew.jpg

[u.b.u.n.t.u]

I don't recall seeing a kanagaroo during the couple of visits I've made to Oz over the years, but I do remember the previously mentioned TV show. The nearest I can manage to having met Skippy is through a breakfast cereal.


New Zealand is as beautiful a land as it is isolated. I would like to holiday there one day.

If I want to see a kangaroo I go to the zoo. Alternatively I would seek to find the nearest kangaroo population, and go bush.

The zoo is the better option and one can have a pleasant picnic too.

[Plumtreed]

There are many wild kangaroos in the Canberra area especially the Gungahlin region. They don't hang around Sydney or Bondi but there are plenty of them about.

I get the feeling that Aussie animals are not all that fearful of 'humans'. Try chasing an emu out of the garden!

[u.b.u.n.t.u]

Try chasing an emu out of the garden!

Let me just put on my body armor! ;)