And you thought that they were cute. Baby koalas eat poop from their mother. Now, it’s one thing to eat your own, but to eat that of anothers is something completely different. But then again, we’re not exactly talking about two girls one cup here. While that infamous video was completely unnecessary, as well as one of the most awful things I have ever seen, baby koalas eat poop from their mother for a very good reason. If they didn’t they would die.
Sometimes evolution has a funny sense of humor. It creates odd animals without stomachs, or others with an insane number of heads on its wiener. But sometimes the process of evolution creates oddities with the digestive system that not only force the animal to do grotesque things just to survive, but can simply lead to their death, like with sloths. But just as with rabbits that have to eat their own poop to be able to simply digest their own food, baby koalas eat poop from their mothers to for similar reasons.
As we know, koalas have a very limited diet, being solely eucalyptus leaves. This utter lack in variety in their diet also poses several huge problems for the cute little animal. One is that the lack of nutrients forces them to sleep almost endlessly, and the other is Coprophagia by the babies. Coprophagia is of course the consumption of poop.
When baby koalas are first born, their underdeveloped digestive system is not capable of processing the diet that they must eat. Their mothers posses a bacteria that allows them to fully digest the harsh eucalyptus leaves. Without that bacteria, they would die of starvation. So, do baby koalas, or any koala for that matter, look as cute and cuddly now?
SOURCES
