An Unusually Mounted Australian Koala Skull and Lower Jaw Bone . Labelled 'Phascolarctos Cinereus . New Holland 1876' and 'Koala'
An Unusually Mounted Australian Koala Skull and Lower Jaw Bone . Labelled ‘Phascolarctos Cinereus . New Holland 1876’ and ‘Koala’
19 th Century
19 th Century
Marsupials inhabit a huge range of habitats from desert to rainforest . Unlike placental mammals they give birth at a very early stage of the embryo's development and nourish the baby by milk from nipples protected by and hidden in a pouch .
Koala's are marsupials and one of the few mammals capable of digesting the aromatic and pungent oil filled leaves of the native Australian eucalyptus . Koala is an Aboriginal word meaning 'it does not drink' as it derives sufficient moisture from it's gum leaf diet and dew . They spend nearly all their lives in the trees eating around 500 grams of leaves for around four hours a night and dozing for the remaining twenty wedged securely in a branch fork . Occasionally they descend to change trees or promote digestion by eating soil , bark and gravel .
With their large wide bear like face and smooth black muzzle set in soft long grey fur they have a deceptively placid appearance . They have short powerful limbs with sharp claws that are readily used to bite and scratch as well as to grip onto the limbs of trees .
Koalas have few natural predators apart from large birds of prey . Aside from man , it is land clearance for farming , forestry and building that poses the most considerable threat to their continued wild existence . It was first reported as being seen in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in 1789 as a kind of sloth or monkey . By 1908 it was slaughtered to such an extent that 57,933 pelts passed through the Sydney fur market alone . By 1924 over two million pelts were exported from the eastern states . They are now reduced to extinction in some parts of Australia .
Koala's are marsupials and one of the few mammals capable of digesting the aromatic and pungent oil filled leaves of the native Australian eucalyptus . Koala is an Aboriginal word meaning 'it does not drink' as it derives sufficient moisture from it's gum leaf diet and dew . They spend nearly all their lives in the trees eating around 500 grams of leaves for around four hours a night and dozing for the remaining twenty wedged securely in a branch fork . Occasionally they descend to change trees or promote digestion by eating soil , bark and gravel .
With their large wide bear like face and smooth black muzzle set in soft long grey fur they have a deceptively placid appearance . They have short powerful limbs with sharp claws that are readily used to bite and scratch as well as to grip onto the limbs of trees .
Koalas have few natural predators apart from large birds of prey . Aside from man , it is land clearance for farming , forestry and building that poses the most considerable threat to their continued wild existence . It was first reported as being seen in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in 1789 as a kind of sloth or monkey . By 1908 it was slaughtered to such an extent that 57,933 pelts passed through the Sydney fur market alone . By 1924 over two million pelts were exported from the eastern states . They are now reduced to extinction in some parts of Australia .
An Unusually Mounted Australian Koala Skull and Lower Jaw Bone . Labelled 'Phascolarctos Cinereus . New Holland 1876' and 'Koala'
SOLD