Koalas in the zoo

May 1, 2002, Toronto Zoo welcomed the arrival of two Koala bears (Quamby and Doowi) on loan from the San Diego Zoo. They are scheduled to stay here in Toronto for 6 month. I gave these Koalas a vista on May 26, 2002.

Here is a close up of Quamby sleeping. Doesn’t he just look like a stuffed teddy bear? According to the keeper, Quamby always sleeps towards the visitors in the morning and change position in the afternoon. So I came in the morning, and indeed Quamby is sleeping facing everyone.

Quamby likes to sleep for just about the entire day. However, he does have a habit of moving a bit while he’s sleeping. The photo on the right is taken while Quamby sleep “talking”. Hmmm… more eucalyptus leaves please… yeah… gimme the tender ones… ZZzzzz…

Eucalyptus is poisonous. Although Koalas have a special system to filter the poinsons out. Doowi woke up around 4 pm, and decided that he needed some more snack.

Koala keeper came for a regular check and found Doowi eating. So she decided to give him some fresh leaves. Doowi wasn’t too happy that his meal got interrupted.

Koalas are picky eaters. They only eat the tip of the eucalyptus branch. They only want the softest and the most tender leaves and will leave all the old ones alone. Doowi here is searching through the eucalyptus branches to see if there’re any good stuff left.

These two photos were taken on June 16, 2002.

Unfortunately tragedy stroke both cute fellows. During the month of July, Quamby died of leukemia. On October 2002, the last month the Koalas are scheduled to be here in Toronto, Doowi also passed away. These pictures are now the last memories of the beloved pair that brought much joy and happiness to the young and old visitors to the Toronto Zoo.