Koala: A Natural History and an Uncertain Future

by Danielle Clode

★ 3.92 (250) • 2023

Amazon Goodreads

⚡️ 10 Quotes from the book

“It amazes me that a creature this iconic and distinctive to Australia is so mysterious. When Europeans first arrived here, it took them a decade to even notice these strange animals in the trees above, and it was thirty years before they were scientifically described.”

“Like most Australian mammals, koalas are marsupials – as are huge hopping kangaroos, miniature gliders, ant-eating numbats and beaming quokkas.”

“Nearly all of the other fossil species have really simple teeth – nothing like as complex as the modern koala. They were probably eating softer leaves of rainforest trees. The modern koalas clearly had a really different diet of much tougher leaves.”

“I also remind myself that primates are, underneath it all, still climbers. Like koalas, we are adapted for clinging, clambering and climbing: opposable ‘thumbs’, friction-ridged fingerprints, long limbs, a short body and rotating shoulder joints. The adaptations for tree-climbing are surprisingly similar to those for rock-climbing.”

“I admire the easy confidence with which koalas traverse the highest branches of our trees. It reminds me of a childhood spent climbing trees, swinging from ropes and building treehouses.”

“Primates can be noisy and demonstrative creatures. Not all animals tolerate that kind of behaviour.”

“Female koalas are, in fact, quite particular about the partners they choose to mate with and have a variety of strategies to ensure that they mate with the males of their choice. They approach certain males and avoid others.”

“Like most children, koala offspring do not always value their mother’s fierce protection. Young joeys are as diverse and cantankerous as any primate toddler.”

“I’m sure we underestimate animal cognition, partly because we need to believe humans are vastly superior, and partly because we have language and can tell of our plans whereas animals can’t.”

“For better or worse, we are part of this ecosystem, and we all must do whatever we can to help it function better – even if that is simply growing plants on the balcony or offering refuge to wildlife. Whatever little you do, nature repays many times over.”

Related videos

2:52

Author discusses surge of interest in koalas and shows footage

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Sep, 2022

Spoiler: Danielle Clode credits children’s book authors with creating new interest in the koala when the animal became endangered. She thought that koalas would be a fairly simple topic, but came to realize that they are incredibly complex. She says they are actually a very resilient species; therefore, Clode takes the koala’s endangered status as a sign that we are really “stuffing things up badly” and “need to look harder at what we’re doing.” She calls them “charismatic” and “a flagship species for conservation.”

70:21

Author presents via video call + photos and drawings of koalas

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Jan, 2023

Spoiler: The author does some myth-busting around koalas, first explaining that they are not bears but marsupials. Koalas are not “stoned,” although they do sleep up to 95% of the time and are active at night. They have a super-charged liver that allows them to eat toxic leaves, such as the eucalyptus. Koalas have agile hands with fingerprints and two thumbs, allowing them to easily grip leaves. Clode warns that their claws are razor-sharp and that you should never poke a sleeping koala.

7:18

Author speaks from natural setting about shrinking koala habitat

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Dec, 2022

Spoiler: Calling the koala “quintessentially Australian,” author Danielle Clode shares that bush fires, land clearing, predation and disease have damaged koala populations on Australia’s east coast; at the same time, however, there are so many koalas in the southern forests that they sometimes eat themselves out of their own food supply. She says that uncovering the prehistory and fossil history of the koala has been one of the great revelations of writing the book. She calls them “highly adaptable” and “behaviorally flexible” animals.

29:08

Author discusses koalas and answers questions via video call

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Jan, 2023

Spoiler: Koalas require a large habitat, an average koala needing a good, productive forest the size of a sports field, or an arid area about the size of New York’s Central Park. “Sociable loners,” koalas will spend time in groups when in a zoo but must be solitary in the wild to maximize their food supply. The author says that because humans are so intensely sociable, we tend to look down on solitary animals and to think they’re not as intelligent, which is untrue.