Fame: 'Bowie' the koala attracts fans with rare blue and brown eyes
Like the late rock star she's named after, "Bowie" the koala has an unmistakable mystique.
Bowie was recently admitted to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, after the koala was picked up by the zoo's rescue unit last month. It was found injured after it had presumably been hit by a car.
Cleared of major injuries, it was Bowie's mismatched eyes that has attracted curiosity. She has a brown eye on the left, while her right eye is a bright blue, all due to a rare genetic condition called heterochromia.
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The eye colouration is a result of a recessive gene inherited from Bowie's parents, which affects the pigmentation in her iris. Fortunately, the condition doesn't affect her vision.
"Bowie's heterochromia doesn’t affect how she sees the world around her, in fact her eyesight is great, exactly what we like to see in a young koala," the treating vet at the zoo, Dr. Sharon Griffiths, said in a statement via email.
"Apart from being extremely lucky in avoiding injury on the road, she's also incredibly unique as heterochromia isn't a common occurrence in koalas; it's more often found in domestic mammal species such as dogs and cats," she added.
Bowie is still being treated at the hospital, with vets administering treatment for a slight limp in her left leg and a case of mild cystitis. The zoo's charity organisation, Wildlife Warriors, assisted with the costs of her treatment, which were between A$1,500 to A$5,000.
Once Bowie is finished with the limelight and has fully recovered, she'll be released back into the wild in the state of Queensland, where she'll continue being just another "Space Oddity."
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Topics Animals
