Video of Koala’s Unique Mating Call Is Downright Fascinating
Have you ever heard the mating call of a koala? I didn't even know that koalas had mating calls, so hearing it for the first time was pretty cool! Australian Reptile Park introduced us all to the call when they shared a video of one of their male koalas looking for some action on Monday, February 5th.
The video starts with one of the zookeepers holding the male koala, whose name is Rupert, while he's making a deep grunting sound. Once Rupert is placed on a tree branch, the sound gets louder and faster. Make sure your sound is on to hear the unique call!
Pretty cool, right? Does it kind of sound like burping to anybody else? Commenter @Rachel Gibson thought so too and said, "Me after I chug a Dr. Pepper." @Australian Reptile Park explains the sound in their caption. The call, known as bellowing, is used by a male koala to attract nearby female koalas to let them know he's looking for some love. I wonder if any of the female koalas at the park heard him and responded. Several Australian commenters, like @SusanFowler813 pointed out, "All very sweet till lover boy is in the tree right outside your bedroom window. Yay."
Related: Koala Bear Standing Around Waiting for Eucalyptus Leaves Is Making Everybody Smile
Koala Mating Process
I wondered if females also make a sound and turns out they do. @RellyMc shared, "That's the male. Female sounds like a screaming banshee." I Googled it to hear it for myself, and yep, the females do sound like they're screaming!
All this talk about koalas and mating calls made me think about how it all works. Turns out that koalas are pretty solitary animals and live on their own. They have a 'range' or territory that can be a few acres wide or hundreds of acres. So it makes sense they need to have mating calls to find each other.
Mating occurs between summer and spring seasons, and the males usually call out to the females in the middle of the night; between 12 and 4 AM. When a female hears a bellow she likes, she'll set off to find the male making the sound. Once the two find each other, the male will sniff the female...they don't seem to be very picky about who they mate with. But the females still have to decide if they really like the guy or not. If she doesn't like him, she'll call out to let him know that the date is off. If she does like him, they do the deed, and she heads back home. After a month gestation, she'll welcome a baby koala into the world, and won't mate again until the baby is weaned, about a year later.
There you have it! A simplified play-by-play about how koalas find a mate. If I ever get to visit Australia (it's on my bucket list) I hope I don't get woken up in the middle of the night by an adorable koala looking to get lucky!
Looking for more PetHelpful updates? Follow us on YouTube for more entertaining videos. Or, share your own adorable pet by submitting a video, and sign up for our newsletter for the latest pet updates and tips.
