Everything you can read on koalas will tell you they only eat eucalyptus leaves. It’s what we know.
“Koalas are strictly leaf eaters. Koalas have strong regional preferences for certain eucalypt species. In a particular district, koalas may feed almost entirely on one or two species.” - Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (Qld)
Increasingly, KoalaTracker is proving we don’t know what we don’t know.
Yes, koalas eat eucalyptus leaves (see the Resources Page for lists), but KoalaTracker members are observing koalas eating a far broader diet, including the leaves of camphor laurel, macadamia and olive trees, bark, flowers, termites and apples.
On several occasions, different koala carers have told me how a juvenile koala in care has raided the fruit bowl and run off with an apple, and they have had to catch them and retrieve the apple from them. Because, well, koalas don’t eat apples, do they. Or do they?
The video and (apple) photos below are from the Cohuna Wildlife Park in Perth, where five of the 13 resident koalas regularly enjoy fresh crisp apples as a treat about twice a week. Eddie, an eight-year-old male is featured in the video.
Owner, Lucille, tells me she saw a documentary on koalas some 40 years ago, that reported koalas eating native crab apples (Pouteria eerwah - wild apple or black plum). They certainly appear to enjoy their apples!
As I watch this video, I am reminded of my visits to wildlife parks where kangaroos are fed a diet that includes raw sweet corn and sweet potato, neither of which exists in their natural diet. But they love them. As it is with koalas and apples it seems. Not every koala, maybe not every type of apple, but there is an unquestionable liking among some koalas for apples. And here's the proof...
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Also observed in the Somerset region, with potential evidence of it in other parts, are female koalas teaching their joeys to eat termites. (Click an image to open the gallery.)
What else have you seen? Map your koala sightings and record their behaviour here, for the public record.
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