Mondo Knows Facts
A koala joey eats its mother's droppings
A special soft stool called pap moves gut microbes into the young gut The joey leaves the pouch after about six months and needs the bacteria to digest eucalyptus. Adult koalas then rely on that gut community to handle toxic oils. They sleep up to 20 hours a day to conserve energy. It sits in Mondo's animals collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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A snake swallows by walking its jawsThe two halves of the lower jaw move independently to draw prey inwardA cow digests grass in four chambersMicrobes in the rumen break down cellulose the cow cannot digest aloneSkin surface is slightly acidic and hostile to microbesSweat and sebum hold the skin near a pH of five across most of the bodyAn elephant is pregnant for about 22 monthsThat is the longest gestation of any land mammalA newborn kangaroo is smaller than a grapeThe joey climbs unaided to the pouch and attaches to a teatSongbirds learn their song from adultsA bird raised in silence produces a crude, unfinished version
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Tags: koalas, feeding, microbes
A koala joey eats its mother's droppings: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- A special soft stool called pap moves gut microbes into the young gut. The figure is taken from Australian Museum, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a animals fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.