I saw that quote somewhere, not sure from whom, probably a comedian. It’s a fair question, though, considering koalas live almost entirely on eucalyptus leaves, the trees bearing which burned by the millions in the bush fires this past Australian summer.
Koalas are one of the great symbols of Australia, and are not actually bears, as you probably well know. They are tree-dwelling marsupials, and all that eucalyptus leaf digestion takes a lot of energy, so they spend about 20 hours of their day sleeping.
We’re still in Port MacQuarie waiting for some traction on expediting our flights home, so we decided to visit the Koala Hospital.
The guided tours are cancelled due to you-know-what, but visitors are still able to wander through, while maintaining social distance, between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm.
The sun was hot today, so the 2.3 km walk from the RV park felt longer than it was.
We saw this art project koala (similar to the tulips back home in Ottawa) along the way. There were more at the hospital, which I’ll show you later.
We were pretty over-sunned when we arrived, but so glad we came.
This little hospital gets a lot done, including rescue, rehab, education and research.
The first thing you notice when you arrive are a few more koala art project installations.
The second thing you notice is documentation of what the koalas suffered in the recent bush fires.
Heart-breaking. And these were among the lucky survivors. Here’s some local news coverage.
Here’s one more photo that’ll break your heart, then I’ll switch to something more hopeful.
These are koalas on the road to recovery. They’re admitted to the Koala Hospital for various reasons, not just the bush fires. They are frequently on the losing end of encounters with cars, house pets (like dogs), diseases (like chlamydia) or loss of habitat – the list goes on. But these ones are on the mend…
They all look pretty crashed out, but as I mentioned digesting eucalyptus (on top of all the healing) takes a lot of energy.
These next ones are closer to getting back to the wild. Can you spot them in the canopy?
Check out these three. It seemed like that one on the far right was looking right at me when I took the picture.
Ever been curious about koala poop? I don’t know if it smells like lozenges, but I do now know that a koala poops about 200 times a day, and each one is about the size of an olive. Or maybe a small grape. Zoom in on the astro-turf in this next shot for an eye full.
Birthday Girl lived to the ripe old age of 25. This is a plaque on a bench commemorating her.
And for one last sprinkle of hope and good will, here are some heart-felt hugs to the hospital from children around the world.
There’s no shortage of heart-breaking problems around the world, it seems, but this hospital in Port MacQuarie is making a little go a long way in solving a few of them.