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The John Batchelor Show

PREVIEW: From a conversation with Australian biologist Danielle Clode about the wondrous Koala -- perhaps 30 million years or more adapting to food sources. And how the Koala digests the toxic eucalypt leaf by using its caecum and gut microbes: the caecum

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 27 December 2023

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

PREVIEW: From a conversation with Australian biologist Danielle Clode about the wondrous Koala -- perhaps 30 million years or more adapting to food sources. And how the Koala digests the toxic eucalypt leaf by using its caecum and gut microbes: the caecum is what Darwin called a useless appendage, or the appendix. Amazed.

Koala: A Natural History and an Uncertain Future by Danielle Clode (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Koala-Natural-History-Uncertain-Future/dp/1324036834

1936. A History of South Australia

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:30.0

This is John Batcheler, speaking with biologist Daniel Cload of South Australia about the

0:36.3

koala. The koala is a phenomenon of Australia. It joins with all the other animals in Australia to make up animals that we have nothing

0:46.8

like in North America except for one, the opossum.

0:50.8

That is similar to the range of animals in Australia.

0:55.0

The koala gets the most attention because it's attractive looking.

1:00.0

Looks like a bear, it's not a bear, it's a koala. And here Daniel describes what makes the koala's even more special. They eat eucalyptus leaves.

1:10.0

Eucalyptus leaves are very tough to eat. They're filled with poison. Why?

1:15.9

Because eucalyptus don't want to be eaten. They want to exist on the trees.

1:20.3

Kowalas do very well with them because they have a seekum. A seekum is also in human beings.

1:27.2

We call it the appendix and we generally regard it as useless. At least Darwin believed it was useless and that's why often it can be

1:36.1

a source of infection or it is removed but the seekum is critical to the

1:41.1

call his ability to digest eucalyptus. Here Danielle describes the

1:47.4

process. This is Daniel Cload, the biologist from South Australia, her new book is Kowala.

1:55.0

I hope not. I mean people still shoot birds certainly in Europe and America, you know,

...

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