Sunday, May 9, 2010

Moms of the Animal Kingdom(image 12 of 15)

Animal Moms: Koalas


Even more than the rest of us, koalas would be completely helpless without their moms. Just 35 days after becoming pregnant, a female koala gives birth to a baby (known as a joey) that is only a quarter-inch long, hairless, blind and without ears. Immediately after birth it crawls down into its mother’s pouch, where it stays for six or seven months doing little other than nursing and growing ears, eyes and fur. It then starts to eat small bits of its mom’s “pap,” a kind of feces, which inoculates the joey’s digestive tract with the micro-organisms it'll need to be able to digest otherwise poisonous eucalyptus leaves. And you thought you and your mom had a unique bond!

Next > Animal Moms: Lions

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