Animal Diaries Archive

Jag's balancing act

24 November 2006

Check this out. Jag, the gorgeous big koala in our photo, weighs a whopping 9kg. And Jag has decided that his favourite seat for the month is a tiny branch about 5cm in diameter! Uncomfortable, you think? Definitely not for a koala.

Jag, like all koalas, has a hard, bony plate in his rump, so sitting like this all day is no trouble at all. In fact, it’s a breeze – literally. By sitting up so high in the tree tops and by dangling his arms and legs out, he is taking advantage of the cool breezes to help lower his body temperature and cope with our hot, humid climate. And there’s one other reason Jag likes to sit so high up in the trees – to fool our visitors, of course! Jag lives in the koala exhibit right near the entrance to the Zoo. As excited guests come in to the Zoo hoping to see a koala for the very first time, they scan the enclosure and forget to look up above their heads, where Jag will be perched doing his famous balancing act and not making a sound.

So make sure, if you’re ever in the Zoo or spotting koalas out in the wild, to take a good look right up high in the tree-tops for that gorgeous big ball of fur.