COLUMBIA, S.C.- Meet 13-year-old Milo the Koala. He’s the Riverbanks Zoo’s newest addition, coming from Zoo Miami. But the reason he was brought here might not be what you expected. “We are hoping to start a new family,” said Matt Parron, the Riverbanks Zoo Public Relation’s Manager.
It’s the zoo’s hope that in the next few years, Milo and his two-year-old neighbor Kierra will make some baby joeys. While there is no definite timeline of when Milo and Kierra will… get together, the process is a long one. When a Koala gets pregnant, the baby is technically born after just 35 days. But Parron says it doesn’t end there. “Then it climbs into the mother’s pouch because they’re marsupials,” he said. “And it spends eight months in the pouch.”
And the upkeep of koalas in general costs a pretty penny. It’s two-thousand dollars a week to feed them, contributing to the 500-thousand dollars a year it takes to feed all the animals at the Riverbanks Zoo. Parron says attractions like new koalas and even the zoo’s holiday lights are imperative for the upkeep of the animals. “Basically, any visitors that come, all of that admission price is going to feeding the animals,” he said.
Watching Milo and Kierra’s romance blossom in a unique opportunity. The Riverbanks Zoo is one of 11 zoos around the country that have koalas, and one of seven that are breeding facilities. With Milo and Kierra still being in separate enclosures, and in the beginning stages of the breeding process, the zoo can’t say for sure when we can expect baby joeys.
But Milo and Kierra’s main keeper, Anna Anderson, is confident they’ll make it work, seeing as this isn’t Milo’s first rodeo. “He knows what he’s doing,” she said. “She doesn’t.”
Milo and Kierra’s love story will unfold in Lloyd S. and Doris N. Liles Koala Knockabout, at the Riverbanks Zoo.
