Chlamydia is a terrible disease for anyone , but even worse if you ’re a koala . So it ’s just as well these beloved pouched mammal have lots of people in their niche . Their latest withstander is comedian John Oliver , who now has a research Montgomery Ward for blind Phascolarctos cinereus mention after him .
Although koalas are thought to date back at least 25 million years , their natural selection is something of a miracle . Not only do they sleep 22 minute a solar day , but zoos consider them one of the most expensive animate being to keep , thanks to their notorious pickiness about the gum leave they ’ll eat .
Modern threat admit dog blast , motorcar , and – perhaps most significantly – thedestructionof their habitat . However , none of these snatch the pop imagination for sheer unsexiness like chlamydia . Although to be fair , few thing are as unsexy to human eye and ears as koalasmating .
The chlamydia bacteria genus infects a all-embracing salmagundi of animals . The speciesChlamydia pecoruminfecting koalas is unlike from theC. trachomatishumans suffer from , but like our own is a product of getting frisky . For koalas , never having learned how to practice condoms and lack the ability to administer antibiotic , it ’s spreading fast , with severe result . Infected koalas sometimes go unreasoning and get urinary nerve pathway infections and a experimental condition known as plastered or sloppy bottom .
British comedian and US TV giver John Oliver ’s meshing began when , on his HBO showLast Week Tonight , he hadsome funwith histrion Russel Crowe ’s memorabilia auction bridge . Oliver bought , among other things , Crowe ’s groin guardian from the filmCinderella humanity , which he donate to one of America ’s last surviving Blockbuster computer memory .
Crowe took the whole matter in good humor and announce he would be donating that destiny of the auction ’s return to a proficient suit . He selected saving koalas , and the money turned out to be enough to get a koala Barbara Ward at Australia Zoo , and name after Oliver . Introducing the John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward .
Oliver responded on this week ’s show , announcing he ’d now achieved his only goal for the show and would be retiring .
Twitter rapidly filled with unquiet buff frighten Oliver might be serious , and the koalas had be them the only thing keeping them sane in the current political mood .
However , all signs are that Oliver was , in fact , joke , and will be back next week at the common fourth dimension , hopefully assume akoala suit .
Efforts to save koala bear go on . Australia Zoo is among the places trialinganti - chlamydia vaccines , and a paper published last twelvemonth has someencouraging news .
One Russell Crowe jockstrap will only go so far , so anyone wantingto helpthis adorable anomaly has a widearrayof places they candonate .
