Fact Check: Male Koalas 'Bellow' Loudly at Night to Attract Females, Instead of Pursuing Mates?

Claim:

Instead of pursuing females, male koalas lie back between midnight and 3 a.m. and "bellow" loudly to attract a mate.

Rating:

Mixture ( About this rating? )

What's True:

Koalas are nocturnal animals that are most active at dusk and dawn, and males do bellow to attract a female mate between midnight and 4 a.m. However …

What's False:

… male koalas also seek female mating partners outside of these hours. Scientists have also provided several other explanations for these deep, guttural bellows – not just mating.

Koala breeding season is just around the corner, with the quirky marsupials expected to start searching for mates Down Under from around August onwards.

Ahead of this romantic period for the Australian creature, a post shared to Reddit on July 11, 2024, claimed male koalas "don't pursue females," but rather "make themselves comfortable… and 'bellow' loudly at any females in the area to come and join them."

The post had received more than 53,000 upvotes at the time of this writing.

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by u/plink-plink-bro in meirl

Koalas are nocturnal animals that are most active at dusk and dawn. Between midnight and 4 a.m., males do indeed bellow to attract female mates. However, males also seek female partners outside these hours, and scientists have provided several other explanations for these deep, guttural bellows — not just mating.

For these reasons, we have rated this claim as a "Mixture" of truth and falsity.

Koala Bellowing Times

The koala breeding season starts around August (winter in the southern hemisphere) and ends around February (summer), according to th e Australian Koala Foundation . Daylight hours in this period vary depending on season and location. In December — the peak of koala mating season — the sun rises and sets around 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. respectively in Adelaide , or 5:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. in Sydney .

Given that koalas are nocturnal, they are mostly active around dawn and dusk, according to the Queensland Environment Department . Therefore, koalas can bellow between midnight and 4 a.m. — but this is not the only time they do so.

For example, researchers in Australia recorded the mating bellows of male koalas across ten locations between August 2016 and January 2017. In a paper published in July 2018, they said the timing of male koala vocalizations was linked to the time of the sunset, with vocalizations increasing two hours before sunset and peaking four hours after sunset.

In a separate 2011 journal article , scientists who tracked koalas for six months concluded the marsupials mainly bellow between 4 p.m. and 8 a.m from September to December.

Therefore, this activity can fall outside the midnight to 3 a.m. window stated in the claim.

Reasons for Koalas Bellowing

While male koalas do bellow to attract females, experts have also proposed other theories behind their dramatic cries.

In the 2011 journal article , researchers hypothesized that their guttural cries weren't necessarily directly related to mating, but rather to induce estrus, or fertility, in females. In other words, male koala bellows served as a " sexual advertisement broadcast to stimulate and attract females."

Four years later, researchers said bellowing may also help reduce potential conflict and confrontation between males, or would-be competitors. It acts as a heads-up to neighboring koalas that a certain male is on the prowl for a mate.

Additionally, in 2022, scientists posited that male bellows are "primarily a means by which males occupy and control habitat space during the breeding season," not solely to attract a female.

Research published in 2007 also found some female koalas bellow in search of a female companion.

Therefore, there are multiple potential explanations for why koalas bellow.

A video of a bellowing koala was posted on Facebook by the Los Angeles Zoo in November 2022. The account said Burra the koala was emitting a "loud bellowing sound to attract females."

Taronga Zoo Sydney also shared a clip of a koala bellowing in a 2016 YouTube video:

Snopes previously investigated other claims involving unique mating rituals in the animal kingdom, including whether male spiders sometimes wrap up "random trash" instead of bugs, hoping female spiders won't notice. We also examined whether it was true a male honeybee's testicles explode after climax during sex. You can also check out this authentic video of a male drone bee dying after mating with a queen bee.

Sources:

Australia, Tourism. "Weather in Sydney - Tourism Australia." Australia.Com , 23 May 2023, https://www.australia.com/en-us/facts-and-planning/weather-in-australia/sydney-weather.html. Ellis, William, et al. "The Role of Bioacoustic Signals in Koala Sexual Selection: Insights from Seasonal Patterns of Associations Revealed with GPS-Proximity Units." PLoS ONE , vol. 10, no. 7, July 2015, p. e0130657. PubMed Central , https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130657. Feige, Stacey, et al. "Heterosexual and Homosexual Behaviour and Vocalisations in Captive Female Koalas ( Phascolarctos Cinereus )." Applied Animal Behaviour Science , vol. 103, no. 1, Mar. 2007, pp. 131–45. ScienceDirect , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2006.03.014. Jiang, Alex Zijian, et al. "Movement of Free-Ranging Koalas in Response to Male Vocalisation Playbacks." Animals : An Open Access Journal from MDPI , vol. 12, no. 3, Jan. 2022, p. 287. PubMed Central , https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12030287. jurisdiction=Queensland; sector=government; corporateName=Department of Environment, Science and Innovation. "Koala Facts." Environment | Department of Environment, Science and Innovation, Queensland , 11 May 2011, https://environment.desi.qld.gov.au/wildlife/animals/living-with/koalas/facts. Koala Burra Bellowing | G'day from Burra the Koala! 🐨🔊 Male Koalas Emit a Loud Bellowing Sound to Attract Females. In Fact, Male Koalas Have an Extra Set of Vocal Cords That... | By Los Angeles ZooFacebook . www.facebook.com , https://www.facebook.com/LAZoo/videos/koala-burra-bellowing/662108828655740/. Accessed 22 July 2024. "Life Cycle of the Koala." Australian Koala Foundation , https://www.savethekoala.com/about-koalas/life-cycle-koala/. Accessed 22 July 2024. Parking, Directions &. and (415) 379-8000. Loud Koalas | California Academy of Sciences . https://www.calacademy.org/explore-science/loud-koalas. Accessed 22 July 2024. ---. Loud Koalas | California Academy of Sciences . https://www.calacademy.org/explore-science/loud-koalas. Accessed 22 July 2024. "Physical Characteristics of the Koala." Australian Koala Foundation , https://www.savethekoala.com/about-koalas/physical-characteristics-koala/. Accessed 22 July 2024. Taronga Zoo Sydney. Koala Mating Call at Taronga . 2016. YouTube , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocIR6B-YtYE.