Baby Koala Awaiting Her Name – Being Voted On Now – And Exit Door From Mom Cybil’s Pouch

Koala Cybil, held by Rainforestation keeper Tom, is carrying AustraLearn's adopted baby koala in her pouch.

This joey isn’t a boy.

AustraLearn received word this week from Rainforestation Nature Park in Cairns, Australia, that its recently adopted baby koala – or joey – is, indeed, a girl.

Photographs taken this week of koala mom Cybil show the bulge of the AustraLearn baby koala inside her pouch and wildlife officers have determined the baby is of the female persuasion.

AustraLearn adopted the baby koala (and her descendants) in part to raise awareness of the threat to the iconic Australian marsupial, which is in danger of becoming extinct in the next 30 years.

Now, baby girl koala needs a name, and everyone has the opportunity to play a part in the selection by voting by Friday, Jan. 15, at www.facebook.com/AustraLearn.

The name choices have been narrowed down to these 10 (in no particular order):

• Euky – (Pronounced yeuki) as in Eucalyptus
• Tim Tam
• Sydney
• Yani – means peace
• Kenzie
• Bommerang/Boomer
• Stars & Stripes
• Yankee
• Kali
• Rugby

The koala is in danger of being wiped out because of disease, climate change, urban growth and deforestation. Recent surveys estimate there could be as few as 43,000 koalas now living in the wild compared to 100,000 just 6 years ago

AustraLearn participants visited the the mom of the AustraLearn koala who is kept at the Rainforestation Nature Park in Cairns, Australia, as part of the six-day AustraLearn Culture and Adventure Program prior to a semester abroad at Bond University.

Koalas are currently a long way from extinction, however the Australian Koala Foundation has said if the “drastic decline” continues, koalas will be “wiped off the planet within 30 years.”

The AustraLearn baby koala will make her home at Rainforestation Nature Park, a unique nature and cultural park that is part of study abroad program provider’s six-day Culture and Adventure Program in Cairns.

This week, North American students visited Rainforestation Nature Park as part of the Culture and Adventure Program, which  kicks off their semester abroad at Bond University.

During the visit, they got a close-up view of the  AustraLearn koala mom and baby.

By 13 weeks, a young baby koala will have grow to about 2 oz. By 22 weeks, the joey’s eyes open and it begins to poke its head out of the pouch for the first time. Pouch life for a joey lasts five to seven months. After that, a joey spends most of its time out of the pouch but clinging to its mom’s belly and later sitting on her back.

The AustraLearn koala will remain with its mother until it’s about one year old and can begin to fend for itself. Koalas can live more than 10 years in the wild, and 17 years or more in captivity.