Per this article there are thousands of kolas that need to be culled to prevent an ecological disaster. So I was wondering if a farmer has a pile of koalas that need winnowing, just what does a drop bear taste like? Anyone know?
Well, just guessing here, but since animals tend to taste like what they eat, and since koalas eat eucalyptus leaves, I’d expect them to taste like eucalyptus.
Yum.
Like chicken.
Ewwww.
VaporRub Chili.
Does beef taste like grass to you?
Have you actually eaten Koala TimeWinder?
As the koala was eaten by the aboriginals and original European settlers, I presume it is palatable. The koala is protected so has not been offered on the menus of the bush tucker restaurants along with kangaroo and emu, so can’t help you as to the taste.
I think the Kangaroo Island situation is about overpopulation in a small protected space because in general koala are an endangered species.
I’m trying to find the book I read it in, I’m fairly certain it was the Letters of Rachel Henning, an early settler, where koala was described as tasting of eucalyptus. Given that eucalyptus is such a pungent leaf, it’s hard to imagine that a beastie which eats nothing but eucalyptus could taste of anything but.
Ah, I think it was a joke.
I figured as much, it would be extremely unlikely for anyone on this board to have eaten koala but this is GQ so thought I would ask.
As the koala is related to the kangaroo and eats a diet of eucalyptus leaves, chicken would be the last thing I would expect it to taste like. Maybe TimeWinder saw this.
If they’re endangered, why don’t they move the excess from Kangaroo Island to other parts of the country?
- Nowhere to put them.
- Risk of transferring disease.
- Risk of disrupting natural genetic distributions.
- Pressure from environmental groups.
- Cost
The point to note here is that koalas are not even close to being endangered. They are listed as regionally vulnerable. What that means is that in some areas they are not at risk in any way whatsoever and in the other areas they are not at risk so long as things remain as they are now.
That makes them a fairly low priority animal in conservation terms. It takes a lot of money to move thousands of large mammals and the returns will be either small or negative. Those areas that can support koalas already support them and there are few potential new habitats for them to enter. They have suffered population decline due to land clearing but there are few areas of new forest in Australia that can support an introduced population. Worse yet those populations that are vulnerable will only be further endangered by the introduction of exotic animals with the stress and disease risk that entails.
A bullet only costs around 30 cents. Moving them would cost over $100/animal. That is several hundred thousand dollars that can be much better spent on animals that might really be in trouble like bilbies and northern hairy nosed wombats that really are endangered and really do need funds.
Well that has been tried.
Until recently I was living in Adelaide, South Australia. This has been a problem for many years. Moving the koalas is a very costly and time consuming exercise, it seems a much easier solution to cull the animals. Many have already been moved and sterilized but the problem still exists.
This article is a couple of years old but explains the situation.
If anyone is seriously interested they can check here on the pets or food website. A 15 pound Koala will run you about 1,200 bucks, but I don’t think that includes shipping. From the website:
Well, I’m glad no prissy copy-editor jumped in to ask, “How do koala’s what taste?”
Oops.
I have read (in an issue of National Geographic, I believe… no idea what issue it was) that the flesh of koalas is virtually inedible: it is extremely oily, and tastes exactly like what you’d expect meat soaked in eucalyptus oil to taste like. Aborigines have eaten it, but more out of necessity than because of any liking for the meat itself.
With their tongues, silly! 
If you put them in a blender, they taste like Coca Koala.
Someone got whooshed!!
They taste like…well, I don’t know. That cutesy little loving face would scrunch up and the tears would start to flow and it would give a plaintive cry as I started to sink my teeth into it’s paw…couldn’t do it, alas.
[Dennis Leary]
I saw a great show on Discovery Channel last night, History of the Badger.
[/DL]