Oxley Highway Matt: hungry koala who thinks his handler is a tree!

Matt was high up his tree until he realised there was formula time! He tore down to ground level and bailed Emma up at the gate. After I took this video, I took the formula off Emma's hands so she could lift Matt up on his gunyah to continue his feed.

Just look at those claws - Emma came away with a nice scratch for her troubles!

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• koala
• bear
• marsupial
• australia
• hospital
• port
• macquarie
• feeding
• claws
• climbing
• volunteer
• fluffy
• cute
• animal

[Tropicool1679]

@Koalawrangler, do Koala's absolutely love their formula??

[koalawrangler]

@Tropicool1679 Not all, but most really take to it. We generally try it on new admissions as it's a quick way to hydrate them and up their weight. If they don't like it though, we don't persevere. They happily survive without it in the wild though!

[ButterflyDragon9]

Those are some serious claws. Do they ever use them in an aggressive fashion? (I've never seen a mad koala, so I don't know)

[koalawrangler]

@ButterflyDragon9 The main function of the claws seems to be tree-climbing; they work a bit like crampons, giving them traction on the smooth bark. The claws also give the koalas almost surgical precision in browsing and selecting their desired sprig of leaf. So their purpose doesn't seem to be as a weapon since they have no natural predators. But the claws aren't retractable like a cat's so they're out all the time. It makes for a bit of inadvertent blood-letting!

[koalawrangler]

@ButterflyDragon9 I should also mention that male koalas do fight, which involves scratching and biting. Koalas are territorial but also solitary - there are alpha males who claim the land (home range) with the best trees and breeding females. The home ranges overlap so there can be fights. To give you an idea of the violence involved, search youtube for "crazy koala fight" and you'll see what I mean!

[vidalz200600]

What the fuck gave you the koala eats?

[chupis11666]

Dear Santa forget about the PS3.......

[TeknikAlity34]

@itsovermarch2012 if you actually look into the Bible, it says NO ONE will know when Jesus is coming. NOT EVEN JESUS KNOWS WHEN HE'S COMING. So SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU PIECE OF SHIT DIRTBAG. Go crawl into your Appoc. bunker and leave the rest of us the fuck alone.

[kcelvisfan11]

just too darn cute

[dsbassoon]

Beautiful!

[TheEternityMagic]

The koala's claws can like rip the flesh of that girl's hand.

[ambiguox22]

too much pretty for the human nature D:

[MrUhohitsme]

@koalawrangler Is it true that the toxic chemicals in Eucalyptus trees make koala bears high?

[chikachikadee]

Koalas are really cute but they're also vicious and will claw your face off. Why do you think they're called drop bears?