Koalas have been "taking poison" all along! They sleep nearly 20 hours a day to "detoxify"...

When it comes to cute animals, I believe many people will think of the cute little koala.

As Australia's most iconic animal, it is truly special....

This is especially reflected in eating.

When it comes to food, it is extremely picky and is definitely as picky as Virgo. No matter what happens, it only eats eucalyptus leaves.

Moreover, although there are more than 300 species of eucalyptus trees in Australia, koalas only eat 12 of them.

The eucalyptus leaf is not an ordinary leaf. Not to mention that it is rough, tastes bad, and has little nutritional value, the most important point is that the eucalyptus leaf has a very high tannin content, which is toxic to most mammals.

Considering that koalas eat about 200 to 500 grams of eucalyptus leaves every day, if it were an ordinary animal, it would have died long ago.

Since eucalyptus leaves are poisonous, why do koalas only recognize eucalyptus leaves as food?

Although koalas usually give people the impression of being silly, there is no such thing as being silly in such a "major life event".

The reason lies in Australia, a continent that is almost isolated from the rest of the world.

Because there are so many species of organisms on the Australian continent, competition is inevitable, and fighting for food is a normal thing.

But creatures like koalas, which are not very competitive, are at a clear disadvantage.

In order to survive, the koala had to settle for the second best and then the second best again. In short, it kept retreating and retreating, and finally found that the only things left for it were eucalyptus leaves.

Because other animals normally won't eat poisonous plants like eucalyptus leaves.

In this way, the koala can only chew the eucalyptus leaves and swallow them.

Swallowed...

But aren’t eucalyptus leaves poisonous? Why didn’t the koala get poisoned?

Scientists have discovered that there are countless microorganisms living in the intestines of koalas, including a type of microorganism called tannin-protein complex-degrading enterobacteria.

This microorganism helps koalas break down the fiber in the leaves into absorbable nutrients, and also breaks down the toxins in eucalyptus leaves.

Therefore, koalas are not afraid of eating eucalyptus leaves. On the contrary, they have an advantage over other animals in terms of food (no one will snatch it away).

In addition, koalas sleep 18-22 hours a day.

In fact, it is because it needs to degrade the toxins in the eucalyptus leaves, and also because the calories in the food are not enough to keep it active all day long. After all, this is their only food and has little nutritional value.

But there is one advantage, which is that the water content is quite high. After eating the leaves, you don’t have to go down the tree to drink water. So people usually sleep directly on the spot after eating. They are justified in being lazy.

However, koalas are not born with the ability to detoxify; it requires a special method.

Because young koalas do not have the ability to "detoxify", the mother koala will give the soft food (poop) discharged from the cecum to the young koalas.

Poop is rich in microorganisms from the mother's intestines, including tannin-protein complex-degrading enterobacteria.

In this way, tannin-protein complexes that degrade intestinal bacteria gradually begin to accumulate in the koala baby's stomach, thus ensuring the healthy growth of the koala baby.

Seeing this, I can’t help but think of a sentence - I raised you with a lot of hard work.

This is absolutely true for koala mothers...