Good to know about the toxic eucalyptus leaves. More for the koalas. I do like eucalyptus in Vicks vaporubs at lease when DDs were little and had a cold.Appreciate very much your empathic statements wrt koalas.Koalas just eat eucalyptus leaves and on good years with sufficient rainfall, they can get most of their water from the tips of green leaves. Research from the Univ. of Sydney -- if I recall correctly --found that koalas lap rainwater from the irregular peeling bark and peeling of their home trees. And pans of water attached to trees as a water delivery system are always appreciated during dry weather (nighttime videos show them slacking their thirst). Pans of water on the ground may facilitate predators.
Eucalyptus is toxic, the leaf content is poisonous. Koalas require prolonged rest (sleep) to have the energy to digest it. Joeys get the gut bacteria that does this from their mothers. Nobody else eats eucalyptus so koalas have no competition for food. But eucalypt is not a high energy food product (like lettuce leaves for us, but we have salad dressings to compensate. So koalas munch, sleep, much, sleep, thru the night (mostly).
I didn't know that pandas have declined in numbers but it makes sense. Seems like so many species are declining.
It’d seem that pandas have a lot in common with koalas in terms of eating habits. Pandas eat bamboos and they just eat all day then sleep and then eat again. There are less than 2,500 pandas in the world, just under 1,900 in the wild. There was no urban planning which destroyed a lot of bamboo forests so panda numbers were dwindling. Efforts were made through breeding programs and panda exchange to visit zoos around the world. These twin babies were born here when the parents were visiting Toronto about 5 years ago. We signed up DDs for summer camp in 2015 and 2016 so they got to see the parent pandas and then babies when they arrived in 2016. They have moved to other cities since.
Although it’d make a very fine reason to visit and bring the newly finished shawl. 