Do Koalas lack Intellectual Abilities?

According to the koala experts, koalas lack intellectual abilities. Despite looking very cute and cuddly, koalas are considered neither smart nor intelligent and even considered as dumb. According to the koala explorers, koalas display certain behavioral traits on the basis of which koalas can be considered as dumb and lacking in terms of their intellectual abilities.

Koalas certainly lack intellectual abilities. Despite being very cute, they are considered as sluggish and dumb creatures by many researchers.

Even the earliest researchers which discovered koalas (after the arrival of the European settlers in Australia), related them as the sloth-like mammal for their sluggishness and ranked them very lower in terms of their intelligence and intellectual abilities. Let's discuss further about the lacking intellectual attributes of koalas and highlight the key reasons which are responsible for it. At times we may also conclude that despite all the fuss about their lacking intelligence, koalas are not that much dumb after all.

A lot of basic examples confirm the lack of intelligence within koalas. For example, koalas are usually not aware of their surroundings. They hardly pay attention to any unusual event happening within their surrounding areas while their only preference is to sleep as much as possible. If it will rain, koalas will not be bothered to move to some shade of branches to avoid it but rather it will continue to lay down in rain. Even within bushfires, koalas stay within their trees unless the bushfires approach them.

Lack of awareness about their surroundings, failing to find a shelter against raining, lack of understanding of bushfires and only preferring to eat Eucalyptus leaves on their own from trees are some of the key examples which prove that koalas lack intellectual abilities.

Even at the times of approaching bushfires, koalas have been found to be sitting at the bottom of trees. If koalas are given the Eucalyptus leaves (plucked from trees), they may not eat them because they are only used to eat the Eucalyptus leaves on their own. Lastly; koalas can easily be targeted by predators if they are within their reach. All of these examples do indicate lack of intelligence within koalas while other animals have evolved key mechanisms for it.

One of the biggest reasons for koalas to lack intellectual abilities is the size of their brain. Koalas possess one of the smallest brains (in proportion to their body mass) of all the mammals within the animal kingdom. Remember; brain is one of the largest energy consuming organ within the body and the smaller the brain will be, the less energy will be consumed by an organism.

Koalas have one of the smallest brains of all the mammals. Even though small brain helps koalas to conserve body energy but it comes at the cost of their intellectual abilities.

Therefore; having one of the smallest brains allow koalas to conserve their body energy because their diet i.e., the Eucalyptus leaves, offers very little energy. However; this smallest brain comes at the cost of the intellectual abilities and intelligence within koalas.

A very important fact about koalas is that their lifestyle hardly requires an intellectual stuff. Koalas live high above trees which allows them to live peacefully in calm. They have to eat the Eucalyptus leaves for few hours and then have to sleep for more than 20 hours per day. They can sleep free of worries because in most of the cases they do not have any predator threats when they are on trees.

The safe and peaceful lifestyle of koalas with ease of food access and very little threats of predators might well be responsible for lower intelligence within koalas.

Some researchers explain that animals with lesser numbers of predators and ease of food access may have lower intelligence and intellectual abilities because animals only learn when they lack or have to flee from predators. Therefore; same can be assumed about the meager intelligence levels of koalas because they get what they want and conveniently do according to their desires.

Surprisingly; Wombats which are considered as the closest ancestors of koalas have the biggest brain of all the marsupial mammals. Wombats are considered as very intelligent animals. Koalas and Wombats are believed to have separated some 42 million years ago. As part of humor, it is speculated that upon separation of koalas and wombats, wombats stole brain and the intellectual ability of koalas.

Wombats are one of the closest ancestors and relatives of koalas but wombats have the largest brain of all marsupials and they are much more intelligent as compared to koalas.

Another marsupial animal from Australia which is almost similar in size to koalas and also an arboreal mammal is the Tree Kangaroo. Even though the Tree Kangaroos have similar conditions like that of koalas, Tree Kangaroos are also much more intelligent and agile as compared to koalas.

Despite all this buzz about koalas and their lacking intelligence, researchers (Professor Darryl Jones and his team) from the Griffith University have recently concluded that koalas are much smarter than we previously thought. Their findings were based upon observations of the koala crossings across various regions and the koalas' response to such crossings.

About koalas' intelligence, some researchers have concluded that koalas are more intelligent than we previously thought because they adapted perfectly to the man-made crossings.

The results were spectacular and beyond their belief because koalas perfectly adapted to choose these crossings as their preferred passage across their natural habitats. Apart from this; many researchers have already concluded that it is just a miracle that how koalas have beautifully adapted to one of the harshest environments across Australia.

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