howdy howdy! today we will be talking about another cute australian creature: koala bears!!!
koalas bears… cute, cuddly, and naaaasty. there is currently a major outbreak of chlamydia among them; upwards of 90% of koala bears have it! yikes.
though most of them catch it through sexual transmission, baby koala bears can catch it from eating pap- their mother’s nutritious poop (yikes pt. 2).
in humans, we treat this STD with antibiotics. but giving antibiotics to koala bears is not a good treatment plan, as their gut bacteria is finely tuned to allow them to eat eucalyptus leaves & antibiotics indiscriminately destroy gut bacteria. eucalyptus leaves are high in a compound called tannin, which is a highly toxic if ya don’t have the right stuff in your belly to break it down. we have developed a vaccine for treatment, but as you can imagine, vaccinating wild animals is…. tricky.
and if we didn’t have enough of a reason to feel bad for our lil koala buds- due to their minimally nutritious diet of eucalyptus leaves, their brains are shrinking & becoming smoother. their cranial cavity is much larger than their brain, so their brain is just shakin’ around in there. oh koalas! we are trying to save you… but you are making it a bit difficult.