10 Comments
User's avatar
Rabbi Eli L. Garfinkel's avatar

Regarding the chlamydia epidemic in koalas, it appears that although they sleep 20 hours a day, they are **very ** busy in the remaining four!

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Even Ron Jeremy couldn't "work" for more than a couple of hours every day!

Expand full comment
Daniel Nest's avatar

We went to visit a Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane during our trip to Australia. Turns out koalas face an epidemic of chlamydia, which made me sad. In addition to that, we later visited another park with Tasmanian Devils, where we found out they have a problem with facial cancer, which Google now tells me is called Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD).

I went to Australia to be afraid of giant spiders and poisonos snakes. Instead, apparently I should have feared the existential dread itself all along.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

This is a very meta comment. I think you're saying that you appreciate being tricked into reading about poop.

But also, seriously: knowledge of another species almost always leads to much more empathy, at least in my own experience. If something seems like a monster, it's almost certainly really damn cool.

Expand full comment
Daniel Nest's avatar

“If something seems like a monster, find out how it poops.” - Andrew 2024.

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

If watching the agony of a stuck turd doesn't build empathy, my name's not Alfred Yankovic.

Expand full comment
Andrew Sniderman 🕷️'s avatar

You didn’t come right out and say it so I want to be double dawg sure - the pre-joey baby’s eat the mom’s poop in the pouch?

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Yes, completely.

Expand full comment
David Perlmutter's avatar

Unfortunately for the koalas, Australia's increasingly large and reoccurring series of wildfires has killed off a great many eucalyptus plants, so the future of their species is up in the air...

Expand full comment
Andrew Smith's avatar

Not super shocking, eh?

Expand full comment