A 7-month-old koala joey is making her debut at the San Diego Zoo’s Australian Outback exhibit.
This year marks a century of koalas living at the zoo. That's because of a donation of two koalas to the zoo from the Taronga Conservation Society Australia in 1925. They were described at the time as a gift from the children of Sydney, Australia to the children of San Diego.
To commemorate the anniversary, the zoo said it asked the Australian conservation society to name the joey. They chose Inala — pronounced, “In-ah-lah” — which means place of rest or peace and is from an area in Queensland, Australia.
Inala has grown from the size of a jelly bean when she was born to about 1.5 pounds this month. In the last week she has started venturing out of her mother, Adori's pouch where she lived for the first six months of her life, according to Jennifer Moll, a wildlife care specialist with the zoo.
"We're wondering how independent she's going to be," Moll said. "A lot of times with joeys, we say that they usually start riding on mom's stomach area first, but, I think a lot of people were really excited because we saw her on mom's back already, and usually they don't start riding on mom's back until month eight or nine."
Koalas can give birth once a year but the zoo paused the breeding program for the last two years, Moll said.
“We decided that we were going to hold off on breeding for a little bit just due to the fact of how many koalas we do have," Molls said. "We have the largest colony of koalas or group of koalas outside of Australia.”
The zoo grows more than 30 varieties of eucalyptus to feed the koalas who eat about 1.5 pounds of the leaves a day.
“We wanted to make sure that we had enough eucalyptus for all of the koalas we had, and then making sure that we have good genetics for those koalas. So do we have the right partners to be going with that female and that male. We want to make sure that our genetic population is strong for the future,” she said.
The San Diego Zoo's koala colony is also meant to be a reminder for visitors that the animals need to be protected, Moll said. They are classified as endangered in Queensland and other parts of Australia.
“We always talk about climate change and global warming. So we need to make sure that we have a connection of why is that important for us to make sure that we're making sure this planet is healthy,” Moll said.
The best time to see Inala in person is feeding time, between 9 and 10 a.m.
