Guest essay by Eric Worrall
A professor has received a $5 million grant, to investigate whether rising CO2 and predicted endless drought will make the Koala’s Eucalyptus leaf diet too toxic for them to eat.
… The koala could soon be even more endangered than at present, if it turns out that climate change alters the nutritional value of the only food it can eat—Eucalypt leaves. Assistant Professor Elizabeth Neilson from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences from University of Copenhagen has received a $5 million grant from the Villum Young Investigator Program for the search of how the chemical structure of the leaves is disrupted.
“We are going to investigate how two distinct results of climate change, drought and elevated CO2 levels, affect the balance between nutrient and toxicant content of the Eucalypt leaves and how this affects the Koala. Eucalypt leaves are highly toxic and the koala needs to sleep or rest for 20 hours a day to efficiently detoxify the poisonous components and gain sufficient energy from their diet. Therefore, the huge amount of energy spent on detoxification is only just about made up by the nutritional value. Any shift in the eucalypt chemistry caused by climate changes may alter the balance of nutritional value and toxicity, and impact koala survival,” says Assistant Professor Elizabeth Neilson.
She and a group of colleagues founded the idea behind the project back in 2012 and she has been working in the lab and in the field almost ever since. …
Read more: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-climate-koalas-diet-inedible.html
I’ve got to admit, I’d be working in the field as well, if someone gave me a $5 million grant.
But it seems deeply implausible that the Koala will be affected by any climate change we’re likely to cause. Koalas have been around for at least 20 – 30 million years, during which Australia has seen radical changes in climate, swinging from rainforest to desert. The ancestors of Koalas had a much more varied diet, but were forced to specialise when the continent dried out, during the brutal dive into the current Quaternary glaciation.
There are issues which threaten the species, such as the raging Chlamydia epidemic which is threatening to destroy wild populations. I doubt very much that climate is anywhere near as serious an issue, as the threat posed by sexually transmitted disease. A return to a warm, wet climate, as prevailed before our current cold period, would not be a threat to a species which has endured far worse.
I guess polar bears are not cuddly enough, though it is cute when polar bears drink coke cola. Will the Koala become the new poster “bear” for the evils of climate change? When will the nonsense end? When?
Well the Koala bears are already long gone. Now just a marsupial shadow remains.
Besides they are like Pandas. Too damn stupid for their own good. Humans can and do eat almost anything, which is why we are successful. Pandas, only eat at Burger King, and Koalas only eat at Taco Bell.
Well koalas are Oztralian aren’t they; what else do you need to know ??
g
The Koala is not a bear. Never has been and never will be. They are also not very delicious. They taste like lamb covered in liniment. Good riddance to the species. Dirty little species. God is punishing them for their sexual practices.
I would not be too worried about the taste of a koala, if it was the only option. Just think about what their young have to eat (Koala young eat the scat of the mother).
Polar bears could be pretty cuddly when drinking B’berg rum. And I do mean the bears doing the drinking.
Some climate observations from Australia’s past (112 years ago) seemed appropriate. Selected verses from My Country by Dorothea Mackellar:
http://www.dorotheamackellar.com.au/archive/mycountry.htm
Everybody has their price, seemingly climate-related researchers have been bought and sold many times over.
30 pieces of silver brought death to Jesus.
And they gave him thirty pieces of silver. … and inquired, “What are you willing to give me if I betray Jesus to you? = What are you willing to give me if I betray
real science?
The big difference being that Jesus needed Judas to betray him so he could be killed and then rise again in order to proclaim himself savior of mankind. Do you think there is any climate scientist that sees themselves as savior of mankind……………………………
Maybe not saviors of mankind, but an awful lot of climate scientists see themselves as saviors of the planet.
Ever notice how when “I love the planet” takes hold, how much their love for their neighbor decreases?
Yeah–they all do.
How many solar panels could you install for $5 million?
How many clean wells?
How many doses of antibiotics for the chlamydia?
How many prophylactics for Koalas?
Pointman
Anyone who has ‘cuddled’ a Koala knows that this is a mistake. They firstly claw you with their sharp fingernails and then they pee all over you. Koalas know what is best for them and that is a Manna Gum. CO2 increases make Manna Gums grow better and use less water. There has been no significant drought in Koala areas recently. Eastern Australia has been the recipient of huge rains lately and even Lake Eyre is filling up. The Koalas and the trees love the rains and it could even help them fight the Chlamydia epidemic which is the true cause of the trouble.
Not sure why you would want to cuddle an animal that smells like a cough drop anyway.
If you grow up with that smell, many come to love it. I use Eucalyptus oil as a general disinfectant/air freshener in the home. Kills ants and flies like a surface insecticide would, bloody magic that stuff.
So….some dang tree hugger was hugging more than trees ?
( Koala STDs )
Just can’t trust those …..huggers !
/s
That’s raw!
While you write in jest (I suppose), it may be true.
I will admit the koala is cuddlier than a coelacanth…
I think we need a new list, ala Numberwatch: number of species used to measure CAWG. Or subset: value of each species (measured by level of grant).
Would the grant thing be those used to get a grant or those receiving a grant? 😎
Note coelacanth (probably no stinkier than other fish), has its “c” pronounced like and “s”, robbing you of the match.
I think the coelacanth is actually L C Smith.
Well I think those initials are something like Latimeria Chalumnae, or some facsimile thereof. But then what do I know ??
g
I nominate pikas.
Koalas are increasing in numbers in and around Adelaide where I live. They are all over my golf course now whereas 20 years ago they were hard to spot. I have seen them sitting in liquidambers at my house but i have not seen them eating the leaves. The population of koalas on Kangaroo Island has grown so much that talk of a cull occurs regularly.
My parents saw one in their gum tree in Fulham. Its near the mouth of the Torrens River which winds its way through the city for 20km from the parks in the hills.
I have a sneaking suspicion that they will adapt to minor changes.
Wait a minute, I thought they could only eat Eucalyptus leaves ?? The Koala bears are cheating science !!
I only know a little about their eating habits, having helped out a masters student many moons ago. They will sometimes bypass a supposedly preferred eucalypt and feed on a secondary species (occassinally, not even eucalypts). They eventually found that the koalas are looking for young leaves and don’t really prefer one species over another. They might be short of these in a drought but as another post pointed out, they easily survived the worst drought in Aus during European settlement.
I found the above clip while looking for a report on an overseas zoo that would supplement the feed to the koalas with things like apple leaves.
Though often called the koala “bear,” this cuddly animal is not a bear at all; it is a marsupial, or pouched mammal. After giving birth, a female koala carries her baby in her pouch for about six months.
@jmorpuss. Thanks for that. I was just about ready to point out the same fact. The meme as a “bear” came from Aussie Diggers scaring the crap out of the Yanks stationed here calling them “Drop Bears”…
Wow fancy that. I never would have guessed.
Pretty soon they’ll be telling us that a panda isn’t a bear either. Well it certainly isn’t a marsupial, as far as I know. I think it’s actually a raccoon.
Golly; do they have any other marsupials in Australia, or are Koalas about it ??
They have marsupials in New Zealand. You can find them on just about any road out in the country. I’ve never seen a native New Zealand marsupial with a yellow stripe painted over its back though.
That seems to be an identification process that is reserved for identifying Armordeeohs in places like Texas. Dunno why they chose yellow to paint them though.
g And Pluto IS a planet !
george got into the cooking sherry! ☺
Better he got into the cooking sherry than sharing the cooking. T’would he be cooking cherries for sharing.
They aren’t native to NZ but were introduced from Aus to establish a fur industry – big mistake. Now the Aussie possum, a marsupial that carries TB, is steadily chomping its way through all the NZ trees! Millions of dollars are spent each year in an attempt to control their population. There are also wallabies in the South Island – stinky pests that ruin pastures. There used to be some on an island off the North Island, but they were culled. However, one species was able to be re-introduced back to Aus where it had become extinct (I think it was the Palma wallaby??)
Tiresomely, NZ gets about four massive invasions of nasties from Aus each year, ranging from mozzies to fruit flies and snakes, not to forget football and cricket teams, and 86,000 migrants.
The best way to save the koalas is to flatten and rehabilitate Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Hobart.
He, that’s not a bad idea. There is plenty of spare space for people in the centre of Australia where there are no koalas.
Do mosquitoes bite koalas? Get ready the next pandemic is brewing and it has nothing to do with CO2.
Mozzies bite anything that exhales CO2, if they can get to the skin surface.
Koalas are much easier for a biologist to have access to than those pesky Pikas that live along and above the treeline in America.
How can you not believe in evolution after you’ve seen a kangaroo ???
OMG….500 pound Super Koalas; didn’t expect that!
/s
Sorry, HOW did you say the koalas caught chlamydia??
My lawyer insists I refuse to comment !!
Why is everybody so worried about the distant future when it’s the PRESENT that needs attention? You have hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees trying to escape the ravages of civil war, some of them drowning in an effort to get to Europe. I say forget about the koala and polar bears and the people who will be here in 100 years from now. If you truly care about the plight of man and animals, do something now. Adopt a refugee family (Oh wait, I forgot. That can’t be done with a model, and there are no grants available for it either.)
Those thousands of refugees are 85% military-age, un-accompanied militant Muslim radical males. colloquially called rapefugees, they have been responsible for thousands of rapes and tens of thousands of assaults throughout Europe and across North America in every place where they have been moved by misplaced “charity”. I respect your horror at their plight, but the oil-rich Muslim countries that caused the crisis and that are assisting their crusade as they cross thousands of miles of international borders and Muslim countries to get to the southern and eastern European borders consistently and solidly refuse to admit ANY of these males, NONE of the females, and NONE of the few children actually needing help into THEIR countries.
Trebla
The Virtue Speaking Dutch Auction today in Westminster [the original one, not the one in Wyoming or Manitoba] has certainly produced some humdingers of grants for the Syrians, who need it.
Well, correctly, promises of grants.
About 50% of the zillions promised since 2011 have been actually paid.
* Work out for yourself how much hasn’t been paid.
And, yes, the Gallant British Tax-payer – having to stump up £4 billion [in our guise as a electricity bill-payer] (the ‘-payer’ word, again!) for some offshore wind-farm being build to shred seagulls – will also generously lob in north of another £ Billion.
[PS I haven’t seen the full donor list, but I assume Saudi Arabia will be in there. Several boxes of wafers, perhaps. No ice-cream.]
And our UK government is still going to borrow £65 billion this year – best case.
Another thousand quid borrowed for every man woman and child, native born or otherwise; spent; and then they’ll come looking for repayment.
And the Gallant British Tax-payer . . .
Auto
And no sense of /Sarc in any of the above.
Probably from biting infected people a hundred years ago or so. Crewmen on sailing ships probably averaged at least one infection per sailor. But even if we limit it to chlamydia more than 50% of the crew was probably infected. STDs require an exchange of bodily fluids. Urine usually doesn’t count (unless someone or some bear drinks it immediately), but swallowing infected blood will do it.
How likely is chlamydia to wipe out the Koalas? Not very. Bears born to infected mothers may or may not get infected. But for the first month or so, the baby depends on the antibodies from their mother’s milk. Then they develop their own immune system. In either case the offspring will have antibodies to chlamydia. Once a sufficient number of Koalas have antibodies against chlamydia, including infected bears, a phenomena known as herd immunity takes over. (When the expected number of bears infected by a bear with chlamydia drops below one, the infection dies out.)
If you want to worry about species extinction in Australia, worry about devil facial tumour disease wiping out Tasmanian Devils.
There was talk recently of reintroducing a “clean” colony of tasmanian devils to the mainland as a safeguard to preserve the species.
I am not sure how far that has progressed.
Felflames
You have to be kidding.. Tasmanian devils are 90% mouth. If they were released on the mainland and grew to 20-30 kgs they would kill everything (including humans). Worse than drop bears.
If so, how come they don’t eat people in Tasmania? Are they so PC they avoid eating leftists?
Now you are talking about a real animal. Too bad they don’t make good house cat substitutes.
But that would be my first choice; maybe a cougar for second choice. I just love the scream that you hear when a burglar coming through the window, steps on the tail of the cougar sleeping under the window.
Never can figure out which of the two makes that scream. Guess it doesn’t really matter so long as it wakes me in time to grab the shotgun ! Well the cougar is fast enough to get out of the way of the shotgun.
g
It’s the S in S.T.I. Andrew, you might get infected if you have contact with their urine.
Anyhow if the leaves get too toxic (as a consequence of 0.3 degrees warming), they will just revert to being carnivores like their larger cousin the Drop-bear. Then we would really have a problem – imagine a eucalyptus tree FULL of 2/3-size drop-bears!
Well, it might cut down on the population of hoop snakes a bit.
Hey mod, hey Anthony, hey all contributers:
the best 2016 EVAAH!
same as me ever was – Hans
When Koalas evolved, CO2 was five times what it is now.
Shhhhhhhh…………
They fed on Cotwoucalyptus trees?
so … this is a press release about planning to starve and gas koalas to see what might happen …
and for a mere $5 million
must be the new science, got it
We should genetically
modifyimprove the eucalyptus trees to make them koala friendly.I wonder if I can get a few million do study our gophers in Canada as Trudeau got briefed that temperatures are warming twice as fast here.
Dry ice is good for studying gophers. They really like CO2.
g
Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
She won’t have to look hard with her $5 million dollars of tax payer funds to find a koala to study, with Australia undergoing ‘culling’ programs to reduce, not declining but soaring numbers…
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/australia-begins-koala-cull-save-species-mass-starvation-1521486
A Danish investigation on the effect of CAGW on Koalas….
Yep, that makes as much sense as “The Science Is Settled”
You don’t get it. They go to Australia for field work during dreary Danish winters, which are Australian summers. Of course, most of that field work is probably along those darned eucalypt infested beach areas around Melbourne or Sidney, or (horrors) in the eucalypt infested NSW wine country. Those toxic Aussie eucalypts grow everywhere, donchano? They go back to Denmark to analyze the data during the torrid (not) Danish summers. Poor suffering souls.
They grow like weeds in Ethiopia!
We have Australopithicaeucalypts all over California. Some people claim that they aren’t native to California, but then what is; it’s a desert.
I say we should keep them; might attract some new marsupials to California. We have the native California possums, but not native koala bears.
g
It’s an historical fact that millions of koalas were culled between 1900 and 1930 …
“She and a group of colleagues founded the idea behind the project back in 2012 and she has been working in the lab and in the field” ….
A good plan by Elizabeth and her mates.
Where would we like to go in winter to get out of Denmark ?
Australia’s nice I’ve heard.
Great.
A bit expensive to get there though.
Can we come up with some sort of project? Let’s go for a bit of funding and someone else can pay for it
Everybody loves Koalas. Something to do with them. Global warming, habitat, food?
Maybe CO2 affects eucalyptus leaves. Does it ? Who knows, it’ll do as a project.
Nice work if you can get it
Greg
Magic.
Side-splitting magic!
Although – the science is definitively settled.
Did I read it on the BBC? Probably.
Auto
Australian temperatures this century
http://s19.postimg.org/539zid2yb/Australia.jpg
NOAA would like to adjust that graph, you know. Everything raw needs some homogenization.