44 | New Scientist | 15 June 2019
Secrets of the
koala hospital
There is a stomach-churning new way to treat koalas that are
burned during wildfires. Georgina Kenyon holds her nose
E
VEN for rehab, this is no ordinary
hospital. For a start, most of the staff are
volunteers. One of them, Sharyn Brown,
shows me around the wards – shady, quiet
enclosures dotted with gum trees, in which the
patients sit. Whiteboards record their progress
and requirements. “No melaleuca leaves,” one
sign reads. Brown tells me that the hospital
employs a “leaf searcher”, who scours the
local forests to find foliage for dinner time.
“This one,” she explains, pointing to a patient,
“came from a part of the state where melaleuca
doesn’t grow, so it would make him sick.”
Welcome to Port Macquarie Koala Hospital
in New South Wales. This unique facility treats
around 250 animals each year from across
Australia. Some have been hit by cars or
attacked by dogs, others have fallen prey to
a variety of illnesses, but perhaps the most
troubling group are those with serious burns.
With wildfires on the increase in the country,
burns have become a serious and growing
concern for the staff here. Now, however, a new
discovery has led to a surprising treatment
regime that includes koala faeces, or “poo
shakes” as they are affectionately known.
“Koalas are pretty chilled and good to work
with because they usually let you help them,”
says Cheyne Flanagan, clinical director at the
hospital. When she started working here
30 years ago, it was just a job, she tells me, but
she has grown to love these marsupials. She
has also become aware of their idiosyncrasies.
“Koalas confound the textbooks. They just
don’t react to treatment in the ways you would
expect,” she says. “They’re fascinating and
puzzling from a clinical viewpoint.”
Much of the problem is connected to their
diet. Eucalyptus leaves contain various toxic
chemicals, so the koala’s liver has evolved to“ The youngest koalas
were treated with the
facility’s special poo
shake concoction”
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