Koalas Diet is Fully Poisonous and Toxic

Koalas live on a diet that is highly poisonous and fully toxic. The major proportion of the koalas' diet consists of eucalyptus leaves. The level of poison and toxicity within koalas' diet can be understood by the fact that if a normal herbivore is set on that diet it will gravely get sick and eventually diet.

Koalas' diet contains extremely high levels of poisons and toxic substances that are enough to kill any other living organism.

Even humans can't resist such a poisonous and toxic diet of koalas and any minute consumption of the koalas' diet in human body will result in nausea, vomiting, dizziness, food-poisoning, diarrhea and at the extreme level coma and death as well. Little kids have known to lost their lives by consuming a few grams of koalas' diet. Let's profoundly study koalas' diet and evaluate the levels of poisons and toxicity within their diet.

As mentioned earlier the major proportion of the koalas' diet comprises of eucalyptus leaves. This major proportion if calculated in terms of percentages will be around 90 percent of their lifetime's diet. There are hundreds of eucalyptus species globally while Koalas feed on almost 300 to 400 of them at the Eastern Australia's landscape.

Koalas feed on hundreds of eucalyptus species and all of them are known to contain dangerous levels of poisons within their leaves.

All of these Eucalyptus species are known to have dangerous levels of poisons and toxic substances within their leaves. Surprisingly the koalas consume them to the maximum extent without any signs of distress.

That's why they say Koalas' diet is full of poisons and toxins.

A deeper breakdown of the Eucalyptus leaves which are major part of the Koalas' diet reveals that that they contain high fibers, low proteins and certain degree of cyanide compounds. Cyanide compounds are always regarded as one of the most lethal poisons and surprisingly the koalas consume them on the daily basis.

The koalas' diet of Eucalyptus leaves comprises of high fibers, lower proteins and reasonable quantities of poisonous cyanide compounds.

Furthermore; the Eucalyptus leaves also contain toxic hydro-cyanic acid which is also regarded as a very lethal poison. Other animals don't even dare to even taste these leaves while the koalas love to feed on these poisons on every single day of their lives after coming out of the pouches.

Hard to believe that how an animal can survive after eating major quantities of these cyanide compounds on the daily basis.

Apart from poisons and toxicity within the leaves the higher levels of fiber are also not essentials for the living organisms. They are very thick and they can't be consumed much in large quantities and consequently the koala's stomach gets filled very quickly. If compared to a normal household bread this fiber is almost 5 times more in quantity with extremely low levels of proteins.

Apart from poisons the Eucalyptus contains high fibers and low levels of energy for the koalas. On the positive side they have a lot of water within their leaves.

The Low levels of proteins also means less energy for the koalas and this is the key reason that the koalas prefer to sleep more than 20 hours a day. If they will not sleep this much they will have to eat more and get more energy from the same diet. However; on the positive side the Eucalyptus leaves contains high concentrations of water (upto 60%) and because of this the koalas don't have to go to waterholes for drinking water.

Apart from eucalyptus the koalas have been known to consume the leaves of a few other plants. These plants include Acacia, Hakea and Banksia etc. Yet all of these plant species have also been known to have high levels of poisons and toxicity within them and they are not a herbivore friendly plants either. For example Acacia contains poisons that are used to kill the rodents.

Apart from Eucalyptus the koalas have been known to live on Acacia, Hakea and Banksia leaves but they are toxic as well.

The leaves of Hakea are highly distasteful with loads of poisons within them while Banksia is also known to be poisonous for the herbivores. This proves that the koalas always live on a diet that is poisonous and toxic. Surprisingly; the koalas have been able to survive for millions of years till now by living within such a poisonous and toxic lifestyle.

People do ask questions that whether a koala can be fed on diets of normal herbivores? The answer is certainly no! A koala may simply die if it will not be given a diet containing the Eucalyptus leaves. Many researchers and scientists have previously experimented this but sadly they all failed. But how come koalas survive even by eating a diet that is so much toxic and poisonous to them? The answer can be found within their digestive and intestinal systems.

The koalas have specialized digestive and intestinal system which helps them to extract energy even from the poisonous and toxic diets of eucalyptus leaves.

It wouldn't be wrong to assume that a koala's digestive system is immune to the cyanide compounds. Moreover; the koalas possess enormous caecum in its hindgut which extracts energy from the consumed leaves while rest the excess matters within the gut is treated as a waste by the intestinal system and it is excreted out of their bodies.