Animal Diaries Archive

Big Boy Antics

20 June 2008

If you ever visited us here at Australia Zoo you were sure to have passed by our Big Boys enclosure, which houses five of our beautiful male koalas. But what is extra special about these boys is that they still live together in harmony. You see, out in the wild male koalas are very solitary animals. One male can occupy up to one square kilometer of territory. To mark his territory he would urinate at the base of his trees and also rub his scent gland on his chest all over the trunk and branches. This lets all the male koalas in the area know that a big tough male lives here and all females know that their prince charming is just up that tree. And if another male were to enter into his territory he would fight him off to protect it.

Even though all our boys still live quite happily together, that doesn’t mean that they don’t display these very natural behaviours. The reason these boys are still quite content with each other is because they have grown up with one another. But this doesn’t mean that they don’t still try to sort out who is the most dominant out of them all. They all rub their chests over the pole and it doesn’t take long for someone else to come along and rub his scent over the same spot. As they have been sorting out their dominance issues a hierarchy has formed. This hierarchy is also displayed through their seating arrangements within the enclosure. The higher the seat the higher the ranking.

So let me introduce you to them. In first place we have Kramer; a quiet yet confident boy who stands his ground. Tied for second are Cosmo and Luca; if anyone has been up to mischief you can bet these two were involved. In fourth place is Tucker, a boy who loves cuddles but most of all his food. And last but not least is Leno, a quiet, sweet and sensible boy who keeps his nose out of trouble.

Seeing koalas are crepuscular, meaning they are active at dawn and dusk; the best place to observe these behaviours is during our koala demonstration held at 1pm everyday! Drop by and say hello and watch these boys chow down on new leaf and get up to a little mischief.