Koalas: Delightful Hobgoblins

[Mike]

Found this on a Tumblr blog by someone called bogleech:

I said this before but people are really getting the wrong message about koalas. When we who like animal science say that koalas are wretched and horrible we mean that they are fascinating and wonderful. It is brilliant that a mammal evolved into this idiot teddy bear that eats poison all day and screams and falls asleep. Can’t we talk about an animal being wretched and degenerate without everyone saying “so they’re useless and can all die, then?” That’s not the point. An animal doesn’t need to be smart, or nice, or even in any way pleasant to be in the presence of to be amazing and special and worthy of existence. Who would ever want the planet to stop having hairy tree goblins that just hang off a tree branch spewing diarrhea while a laughable pea brain rolls around behind their asshole baby face?

[Stan]

Well said.
It's cool that, with their niche figured out (eat poison no one else can so no competition for food), they evolved to have simpler brains that use less energy to survive on low energy food because they don't need to overthink things.

[Phoebe]

Thank God they have not become like cats and developed both techniques and parasites that subject us to their wills. Otherwise we would be overrun and every home would have a koala.
Note that the cat-overrun problem in Australia is so bad that they are actually trying to kill millions of cats to deal with it! It is a controversial policy to be sure, but that's where the Australians have managed to get themselves. We can't pretend that we're immune from the same problems that they have, just because their reckless culture has for so long allowed them to accept hostile fauna.