LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Louisville Zoo is getting a new species!
The zoo announced that two male koalas will be coming from the San Diego Zoo and will be arriving later this June. Dharuk and Telowie will join the zoo's family "indefinitely" as part of an agreement with the Australian government.
Kyle Shepherd, a spokesperson for the Louisville Zoo, said koalas were temporarily at the zoo during the 1980's and again in the early 2000's.
“Koalas are fantastic ambassadors for Australia, representing a truly unique species,” Dan Maloney, Louisville Zoo director, said. “I am excited to see families experience our friends from the ‘Land Down Under’!”
When the two get into town, Shepherd said they will undergo a standard 30-day quarantine period in their prepared space, enabling them to be on exhibit sooner than the usual duration. They will be on exhibit at the foot of Glacier Run alongside fellow Australian species.
Once they are on exhibit, Shepherd said they will be kept separately since koalas are "territorial" and "solitary in the wild."
"Zoo guests will likely see the two new residents sleeping most days," he said. "Koalas almost exclusively eat eucalyptus leaves. This plant provides low-quality nutrition that takes time for koalas to process for energy. The eucalyptus that Dharuk and Telowie consume will be from one of just two eucalyptus farms in the U.S., both dedicated to supplying zoos."
Shepherd explained that 2-year-old Dharuk is named after an extinct Aboriginal language of the blue mountains. Meanwhile, 4-year-old Telowie is named for the saltbush plant in Australia and means “old man saltbush by the waterhole.”
The zoo is open daily year-round. Spring/summer hours are 10 a.m. ─ 5 p.m. (but you can stay until 6 p.m.)
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