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  • Box 7

A What bat?

Wombats are referred to as the "bulldozer of the bush" because they are such powerful diggers.

Let's be friends

Female koalas are friendlier with each other than males are and sometimes hang out together in groups.

Love me tender

Kookaburras swoop down from a perch to capture prey, then bash the prey against a branch to kill and "tenderize" it before swallowing it whole.

Hard nosed

The echidna's snout is tough enough to break open termite mounds but sensitive enough to feel tiny vibrations.

Listen to me

Bowerbirds can imitate sounds, everything from frogs to other birds.

Hop along

Wallabies are part of the kangaroo family known as macropods, which means "big feet." They use those feet and muscular legs in a form of locomotion called saltation—they hop.

How do I look?

The face feathers of Gouldian finches can be one of three colors: 70 to 80% are black, 20 to 30% are scarlet, and gold is very rare.

A different drum

When a male cockatoo drums with a stick on the side of its hollow-log nest, the sounds can be heard more than 100 yards away.

I'm a little devil

A Tasmanian devil makes an eerie growling noise as it searches for food, and when a group feeds, they make harsh screeching and screaming sounds.

The kids help

Adult kookaburras pair for life and use the same nest hole each year, with four or five of their grown offspring helping to feed and raise the chicks.

They eat what?

Koala joeys eat their mother's poop in order to obtain the bacteria koalas need in their gut to digest eucalyptus leaves.

Smell me!

Male koalas leave messages for other koalas by rubbing a sticky, smelly substance from their chest onto trees.

Vroom, vrooom!

A male koala's loud, reverberating bellow sounds like a mixture of a motorcycle revving and a pig snorting.

Looking back

The pouch of a female koala opens toward the rear instead of the head, possibly a leftover adaptation from when ancestors dug in the dirt.

Conrad Prebys Australian Outback

Koalafornia Dreamin' at the San Diego Zoo