Honest Signalling in Koalas

Dr Bill Ellis is a postdoctoral researcher in the lab, who spends much of his time in the field tracking and studying koalas (and other cool animals).


In a recent project, Bill and colleagues (from Australia and the University of Vienna) learned that male koalas - which make loud, grunting bellows - have a particular vocal anatomy that means their call can give others a non-visual indication of the caller's body size.

This is the first time that a permanently-descended larynx has been found in a marsupial.

Pretty cool.

Though Robbie and the rest of us in the lab weren't part of this research, we're proud of Bill's awesome work, and thought you might like to read about it! You can find out more about the project here, on the Koala Ecology Group website or more about animal signalling here.