Why Most Koalas Die of Starvation?
It is very common among Koalas to suffer from starvation. In fact Starvation is a very core factor that leads to the death of almost every second Koala in Australia. Some researchers also found that many Koalas during their ending life period (when they reach the last quarter or less of their life) usually suffer from starvation and die quickly. Dying because of starvation is almost the natural mortality reason for the Koalas, if the Koalas do not get the victims of any other predators such as Eagles, Dingoes and wolves etc. It is very important to note that for young Koalas, it is very rare to suffer from starvation which is also an amazing factor, while starvation is very common among the elderly Koalas.
The elderly Koalas throughout their lives gradually develop a problem of Tooth Decaying. Whenever, their each and every teeth wear out because of decaying and continuous grinding, there is no more reason left for the Koalas to survive in the nature. In such a scenario, death is an ultimate scenario and result. This thing becomes worst, when being found out that death because of starvation. The Koalas food is also equally culprit in this regard as well. Their food which is Eucalyptus leaves offers little nutrition. They have to chew their food to the maximum so that they extract better nutrition from their food. However, when they lose their teeth because of tooth decaying, they will not be able to chew the food properly. As a result of that, they swallow the whole leaves. These leaves when reach the stomach, Koalas’ stomach fails to absorb any food from the un-swallowed leaves. The same is true about the large intestine; the largeness of the leaves offers no help to extract any nutrition for the Koalas.
Food availability is another core reason. Since Australia is the driest continent on the planet earth, therefore, sometimes the Eucalyptus forests which extract a lot of water dry out and destroys Koalas’ food habitat. In such a scenario, the only thing which Koalas will always suffer will be the starvation and death from hunger. Since there are no water ponds in Australia’s dry plains and Koalas rarely move across, they also die of heat exhaustion as well but that is another reason of their death which is relatively lower.
