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What's the hierarchy here? (thelemmy.club)
submitted 2 days ago by to c/whitepeopletwitter@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 59 points 2 days ago (6 children)

To be fair, real life Koalas are easily one of the dumbest animals going, with the actual smoothest brain of any mammal.

And the reason for that is their primary food source, Eucalyptus leaves, are so nutritionally poor that they can't afford the extra neurons.

Hell, they're so built on instinct that they'll only recognise Eucalyptus leaves if attached to branches.

So if any mammal was going to be depicted as non-anthro, they're a pretty good candidate for it.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    In Koala's defense, I've heard people say that the "won't eat picked leaves" thing is an evolutionary advantage to stop them from eating rotting leaves off the ground. Of course, there are other ways to distinguish fresh and rotting food, but like you said, limited neurons.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago

    I have to think that if it evolved this way, then probably there are not better ways, meaning perhaps there is a pathogen that occurs on downed leaves that is invisible and odourless. Or perhaps it just takes them out of the environment where they are at least minimally adapted to survive. Evolution is cruel but it's not stupid, and if it seems stupid it probably just means I'm stupid.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Koalas are the only animal I know of that regularly die from bursting into flames. Eucalyptus oil is highly flammable and they are covered in it all the time, so occasionally they just immolate if the sun hits them the wrong way

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