People are freaking out after hearing what koalas actually sound like
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: @u/_swuaksa8242211/Reddit
When you think of koala bears, you probably think of fuzzy looking animals hanging on to a tree in Australia's warm weather - but your thoughts may soon change.
I'm not sure about you, but I was today years old when I learnt that koala bears make a noise.
But what kind of noise, I hear you ask? Hear it for yourself:
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If you close your eyes, you could have easily been listening to a pig - and many people feel the same.
"Koalas are just tree pigs," someone wrote on Reddit where the video was shared.
Another joked: "Fingerprints like a man. Looks like a bear. Sounds like a pig. It’s man-bear-pig!"
"It's official.... Tree pig," a third echoed.
Meanwhile, someone else compared the noise to being like something clogged in a drain.
"This changes the way I think about koalas," added someone else, while another Reddit-user said: "I think I could’ve lived a much happier life without knowing what koalas sound like."
Another person who evidently isn't much of a koala fan labelled the animals as being 'STI riddled' - but this may soon change.
Earlier this year, it was reported that koalas may soon be vaccinated against chlamydia - a sexually transmitted disease common in the animals.
The STD can cause infertility, blindness and even death in the Australian native marsupial, so much so, it has even put koalas at risk of extinction.
Koalas were officially declared 'endangered' by Australia's federal government last year, so the vaccinations could prove vital.
Scientists set out to capture koalas in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales where 80 percent of koalas were infected.
The vaccine was also trialled back in 2021 when 400 koalas were given the injections at Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital.
At the time, Peter Timms, a professor of microbiology at the University of the Sunshine Coast, insisted that the vaccine was 'safe' and that it 'causes no problems at all'.
While chlamydia in humans is easily cleared with antibiotics, apparently giving koalas antibiotics isn't the easiest of tasks.
"You can’t really easily give antibiotics to koalas,” Timms said, as per The Guardian. “People do, but it upsets their gut bacteria, and they need their gut bacteria to digest eucalyptus leaves.
"Unfortunately 10 or even 20% of animals that go through the [Australia Zoo] wildlife hospital come back to the hospital. In a lot of cases, if you just treat them with antibiotics, they often come back with chlamydial disease again."