8

Various sources online (including a frequent copy-pasta disparaging the animal) claim that koalas will not recognize eucalyptus leaves as food if they are cleanly laid out on a table in front of them, instead of attached to a tree.

  • University of Melbourne Scientific Scribbles Blog

    If you gather a bunch of Eucalyptus leaves, which the koalas eat, and put them on a plate in front of the koala, the koala won’t know what to do with them; they just sit there and gawk at it.

    They lack the ability to discern that it’s still food given that the leaves have moved off the tree and onto a new source that they’re unfamiliar with.

I know that they have a very small, unwrinkled brain, but what source is there regarding this peculiar dietary behavior?

Oddthinking
  • 140,378
  • 46
  • 548
  • 638
Feryll
  • 229
  • 2
  • 5
  • 2
    @Feryll: I am not sure this dietary behaviour is that "peculiar". I recall a caged cockatoo that loved to be given a whole almond, which it would shell with its beak to get to the nut to eat, but when handed an pre-shelled almond nut, would discard it with disinterest. – Oddthinking Feb 11 '19 at 08:02
  • This claim is presented in the textbook [Life of Marsupials](https://books.google.com/books?id=KqtlPZJ9y8EC&pg=PA234#v=onepage&q&f=false) from 2005, but I don't know what their source is either. – Is Begot Feb 11 '19 at 18:39
  • This is a comment since I have no source but myself. Yes, I've seen a koala pull eucalyptus leaves off a kiddie plate placed out for it at a conservation park near Adelaide, Australia. It approached, slowly took the leaves and ate them. – Mikey Feb 19 '19 at 22:09
  • I just asked this question in pets.se and something that i think has bearing is that there is a video of a koala drinking water from a bottle -- but their name means "doesn't drink." If they have enough behavioral flexibility to drink water this implies to me that they might also be flexible enough to eat picked leaves. – releseabe Jan 06 '22 at 10:47

0 Answers0