I've never seen a koala crunch up the stems and discard the leaves! We noticed on arriving at the care centre that there was a lot more leaf laying on the ground than usual but it wasn't until I had given Edward a nice fresh pot that I stood stunned while he very deliberately ate the stems and dropped the leaves to the ground! This is a swamp mahogany he is eating.
Thanks so much to everyone for all the comments and favs taking me onto the TP and PP so often!
Aaw !! bless him ! Edward must find the stems more juicy and perhaps more nutritious !! or perhaps in the wild he had learnt to live on what the others left behind !! Whatever , he is a sweetie !
@ziggy77@onlyme111@flyingleap@janewinfrey@annbo@beachdog wow, I was out all day today and come here to such a lot of comments! THANK YOU EVERYONE, this subject is so close and dear to my heart I can't express how it feels to have you all sharing it now :)
@kchuk now normally it's the leaves they eat of course. Edward has been in care with us for around 3 months now. Until this photo I had not noticed any of this stem eating stuff happening, but it had been happening the day before. I suspect there was just something about the stems in this lot of swamp mahogany that really appealed to him. Apparently they taste disgusting either way unless you are a koala ;) lol
@beryl Usually a koala at this age would still be going around with mum, but not in the pouch anymore. I'm not sure what date he first went into the hospital at Currumbin but he has spent most of his short 14 or 15 months of life in care, so maybe he is just confused? ;) lol
@dsp2 truly in the wild one wouldn't normally get this close! I do get only a few metres away from some of mine occasionally but not often. Edwards fur is as soft as it looks, we can't cuddle them but we can pat them and I've done that plenty of times :)
@gilbertwood doesn't the ear posture make them look different! He is around 14-15 months old, so yes he is quite young. Usually they would still be going around with mum at this age, though not in the pouch of course :)
@happysnaps thanks for enjoying, he is as soft as he looks, very fluffy one :) I was just so stunned watching him as he feasted on stems for about 15 minutes straight, I should have taken a photo of all the leaves on the ground under him! Something about them was good, and we will probably never know, but we can have fun thinking up reasons :)
@milaniet@888rachel I figure he needed something in the stems for a while, and I'm sure it won't hurt him. But I am pretty sure with other leaves and probably the next batch of swamp mahogany he will be back to leaves. He wasn't doing this to the forest red gum or tallowwood, well he wasn't touching them just getting stuck into the stems of all of this tree I brought into the run!
@cashew@salza@alia_801 Thank you so much! I think I've replied to all the wonderful comments above but so appreciate your enjoyment and comments let alone favs.
EVERYONE - 365 ROCKS and you are all champions, thanks for enjoying with me!
I learn so much from your photos! Each of the koala's really do have different looks/personalities! You can tell that you love what you do...and I am so glad you are sharing with others through your beautiful photos!!
thank you so much for the comments and for enjoying him. he is a great little fellow even if his eating habits are strange :)
EVERYONE - 365 ROCKS and you are all champions, thanks for enjoying with me!