Two Thumbs the Koala by Leslie Rees

THE STORY OF
TWO-THUMBS KOALA

In Two-Thumbs the Koala, Leslie Rees has written an absorbing story about an animal that is not merely the favourite of Australians but is one of the world's best-loved furry creatures.

   Two-Thumbs takes his name from the interesting fact that, of five fingers on any koala's forefoot or hand, two are "opposable" to the others, not, as in human beings, one. Hence the koala appears to have an extra thumb to help him secure a better grip of his high gum-tree branches; this makes up for the curious lack of a proper tail.

   It is only in the last half century that koalas have won universal affection. Tens of thousands used to be killed for their fur. Such slaughter is nowadays sternly forbidden by law. But koalas numbers today on the eastern side of Australia (the only part where they have belonged since those ancient times when probably they migrated from Western Australia) are very small indeed. It is only by the greatest care on our part that they can as a species continue to exist. Every boy and girl who loves the story of Two Thumbs can help these charming, innocent-faced and harmless marsupials to go on living among us by being kind to them, leaving them alone in the bush or handing over any stray, lost or wounded koala to a sanctuary.
   
  The author is indebted for many facts to Ambrose Pratt's book, The Call of the Koala,a s well as to various helpful persons associated with sanctuaries and zoos.

Illustrated by Margaret Senior