The koala has no tail, and is a stout, clumsily built animal, about 32 inches in length, with thick woolly fur of a greyish colour.
Although in captivity the koala takes kindly to a mixed diet in which bread-and-milk and fruit may form substantial elements, it can rarely be induced to altogether dispense with its customary gum-leaf regimen, and it is this circumstance that mainly accounts for its rarity in European menageries. Time and again, however, this interesting animal has put in an appearance at the Regent's Park; but in spite of Kew Gardens and other sources being laid under contribution for a supply of gum-tree leaves, its sojourn there has been but brief. As a matter of fact, the common or blue gum-tree, which is alone cultivated and available in any quantity in this country, and which is indigenous to Tasmania, is not the species on which the koala is accustomed to feed. Of gum-trees there are some hundred species, every one differing in the peculiarity of its aromatic scent and flavour, and having its special clientèle among the ranks of leaf-browsing animals. So far as the writer's observations extended, it was the big Queensland "white" and "swamp" gums that were especially patronised by the Australian bears, and these are not grown in England.
Although at first sight, and normally so far as the younger individuals are concerned, the koala would appear to represent the most perfect embodiment of peace and goodwill among mammals, he is accredited at a maturer age, when crossed in love or goaded to resentment by some other cause, to give way to fits of ungovernable rage. These temporary lapses are, however, very transient, and our little friend soon recovers his customary bland placidity. While it is being threshed out, nevertheless, the "burden of song" delivered by rival claimants for a partner's favours is a remarkable phenomenon. The circumstance that the vocal duet is commonly executed high up among the branches of the loftiest gums no doubt adds very considerably to both the timbre of the "music" and the distance to which it is carried. The old-time phrase of "making the welkin ring" would undoubtedly have been applied with alacrity and singular appropriateness by the poets of the departed century to the love-song of the koala, had they been privileged to hear it.
Among the examples of the koala which have been in residence at the Zoo, one of them came to a pathetic end. As told to the writer by Mr. A. D. Bartlett, the late superintendent, it appears that the little animal, on exhibition in the gardens during the day, was brought into the house at night, and allowed the run of a room which, among other furniture, included a large swing looking-glass. One morning the little creature was found crushed to death beneath the mirror, upon which it had apparently climbed and over-balanced. The information that the animal was a female evoked the suspicion that personal vanity and the admiration of its own image in the glass had some share in compassing its untimely end. Possibly, however, it hailed in the reflection the welcome advent of a companion to share its lone banishment from the land of the gum-tree, and in its efforts to greet it thus came to grief.
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
KOALA, OR AUSTRALIAN NATIVE BEAR.
These animals make a peculiarly plaintive cry when molested in any way by human beings.
The female koala produces but one cub at a time. At an early period after its birth this is transferred to its mother's back, and is thus transported until its dimensions are about one-half of those of its parent. The pair as shown in the illustration on [page 355] presents, under these conditions, an essentially grotesque aspect.
It is a noteworthy circumstance that, compared with the male, the female koala is but rarely to be observed wandering abroad during broad daylight. As with the typical phalangers food is consumed chiefly at night or during the brief Australian twilight hours. While the male at certain periods, more especially the months of March and April, is much in evidence in daytime to both the senses of sight and hearing, as attested to on a previous page, the female spends the whole or greater portion of the day clinging as an inert sleeping mass to a convenient branch. "Bear"-shooting in Australia, as might be anticipated from the description here given of the animal's habits and temperament, affords but sorry sport. It may further be remarked that those who have shot at and only disabled one of these inoffensive little creatures are scarcely likely to repeat the experiment. The cry of a wounded koala has been aptly compared to that of a distressed child, but still more pathetic. When fatally shot, it also more frequently than otherwise clings tenaciously back-downwards, like the South American sloths, to the supporting tree-branch, and is thus frequently irrecoverable. With the non-sentimental Australian furrier the koala's pelt of soft, crisp, ashy-grey fur is unfortunately in considerable demand, being made up mostly, with the quaint round head and tufted ears intact, into, it must be confessed, singularly attractive and warm rugs.