# @science on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DTD3ET7ku5l
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/38499403-science-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/0eeb53b413.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-01-03T19:30:16.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Science 🧬 (@science) — https://gondola.cc/science

## Caption

One of the leading killers of Australia's endearing koalas is a debilitating bacterial infection: chlamydia.⁠
Chlamydia is no joke to koalas. Surveys have shown that some wild populations demonstrate a 100 percent rate of infection, which frequently leads to blindness, severe bladder inflammation, infertility, and death. ⁠
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Treatment with antibiotics could create further problems for the marsupials, upsetting their gut microbes and making it difficult for them to digest the eucalyptus leaves that are a staple of their diet, researchers recently discovered.⁠
Adult koalas catch chlamydia just as people do - through sexual transmission - but young koalas can also become infected by eating pap, a nutritious type of feces, when it is excreted by infected mothers.⁠
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#koalas #chlamydia #marsupials #science #biology

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 1,328
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- **Comments:** 45

## Tags

science, marsupials, chlamydia, biology, koalas

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