Koala Encounters

[Applause] I'm out on the Great Ocean Road, and I've just spotted my first koala in the wild, uh, since moving to Australia 7 years ago. He's pretty amazing, uh, looks like he's just woken up, and he's a little bit groggy.

Um, as you can see, koalas don't really do that much. He wants to get to a tree—oh no! Oh no, don't touch the koala, that's a bad idea. Doubt that he likes being chased like [Music] that.

[Music] As you can see, he doesn't really do very much. In fact, koalas can sleep about 20 hours a day, and that's because the eucalyptus leaves they eat are not particularly nutritious, and they're very difficult to digest.

In fact, they have some bacteria in their gut that helps them digest those leaves. When a baby koala is born, it doesn't actually have that bacteria in its gut, so the first thing it has to do is eat its mom's poo.

So that's its first meal. Not really the best way to enter life, but there you go; that's the life of a koala. Most of the rest of life is sleeping and eating those crappy leaves.

Doesn't sound like a lot of fun. I don't think I would like it. When you think about the awesome specimens that evolution has produced, it's a wonder these guys are still [Music] alive.