Australiana #1 - Koala

So as I said, I will be posting wildlife pictures from my recent Australian adventure on a weekly basis. We begin with that most obvious of Australian critters - the koala. Unfortunately, we never managed to see one of these in the wild so these photos come from the Healesville Sanctuary and the Featherdale Wildlife Park, both superb collections of native species in generous enclosures.

Sleepy koala

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Bearded koala

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They may seen cuddly, but you don't climb trees without claws like these

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Surprising things that koalas apparently do...

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More like this

Creationists cant deal with ERVs. They have no answer to the problems ERVs pose to Creationism. They have no alternative explanation for the weight ERVs lend to evilution. However, this doesnt stop Creationists from bluffing/lying to save face in front of the True Believers.
They sleep an average of 20 hours, and subsist on less than two pounds of gum leaves per day. Yet an absence of natural predators and extremely low metabolic demands may not be enough to keep Australia's koala population alive into the next century.

That's photo is such a reality check. Koala's have become so "Elmo-ized" ... I think of them more as a stuffed toy animal than an actual creature. Great photo.

I think I'd enjoy living the Koala life: sleep for 16-20 hours, munch on some leaves, savage some unsuspecting tourist with my massive talons when he pokes me to get me to look at the camera, sleep some more..