Guest Column by GeoT
Dateline: 06/21/00
The teddy bear is sometimes questioned with a possible relationship to the Australian Koala "bear."
The origin of the teddy bear is somewhat in dispute. Most believe the teddy bear was contemporaneously created in both Germany and the United States. That's not so hard to believe (for two guys in different parts of the world took gasoline engines and turned carriages into automobiles). So, why not teddy bears? Well, it probably did happen that way. The official year is agreed upon: 1903. The Leipzig Toy Fair of Germany was the place 3,000 of the friendly little bruins were first ordered for the U.S. market.
The name ‘Teddy’ is a little different situation!
This is where the Illinois Central Railroad enters the picture. The Illinois Central was, once, briefly, the longest railroad in the world at approximately 700 miles. It was built from the southern part of Illinois northward through the center of the state. The destination was Galena in the far northwest - home to lead and zinc mines. Chicago was a secondary branch line back then. The Teddy Bear is named for President Theodore Roosevelt, and, the ICRR was indirectly involved. Here is how it happened:
The President of the ICRR invited President Roosevelt to Mississippi for a bear hunting adventure. (By that time the IC had reached the port of New Orleans.) After hunting for three days and finding no bears, his hosts were concerned that the President’s bear hunt would be unsuccessful. Someone turned up with an old bear (some suggest it was a cub) chained it to a tree, and invited President Roosevelt to shoot it, thus he could say he had "bagged a bear." Admirably, the President refused. This story reached the Washington Post newspaper, and a cartoonist depicted the incident calling it "Drawing the Line at Mississippi." The story spread throughout the nation. Thus, a bear became President Theodore Roosevelt’s symbol.
The stuffed animal appeared almost simultaneously in the United States and Germany in 1903. In the U.S., two stuffed bears, made by Rose and Morris Michtom, were displayed in a store window in New York and advertised as "Teddy’s bear." (With the permission of the President it is said.) The name teddy’s bear was quickly accepted but later was shortened to simply teddy.
Now, some believe, because of the similarity in appearance, the Teddy Bear must have a correlation to the Australian koala. No, those first stuffed bears were bears and not koalas. Early Teddy Bears are much more bear-like in appearance than those of today. Many modern Teddy bears have taken the softer and more gentle appearance of the koala. Everyone recognizes the similarity in appearance of bears and koalas and this is why the koala is mistakenly referred to as a "bear."
Koalas are marsupials, that branch of "mammaldom" that bears the young at a very immature stage with final development taking place in the mother’s pouch. It happens that mom’s pouch faces the birth canal (good engineering!) so the infant has an excellent chance of making its way to safety, warmth, and the milk bar. When baby koalas are born they weigh about half a gram! Bean seed in size.
The name koala is Aboriginal for "no drink." They receive the moisture they require from the eucalyptus leaves they eat. But, seeing a koala drinking from a pool of water is not unknown. Lazy little fellows, though, they sleep 18 hours a day, and to the annoyance of people sleeping nearby, mating time can be a raucous event! One report from Australia describes the sound like a cross between two mating ferrets and a chainsaw! Koalas may live 13 to 18 years.
Koalas eat only a few of the many species of eucalyptus. Zoos that desire koalas must somehow account for feeding them. This is a limiting factor in how many zoos around the world have them. The San Diego Zoo in California for example, raises eucalyptus for their koalas. We won't find them for sale in any pet stores! Besides, it’s illegal to keep a koala as a pet in Australia. The koala is a protected species and has been for quite some time.
Koalas are found in eastern Australia from northern Queensland right through southwest Victoria. But they are not ubiquitous. They locate only in areas of favorable habitat (said to be fast disappearing). They are in Western Australia too, but they were taken there and they are not indigenous to the region.
So, the next time we see a teddy bear, or think about a koala, we'll know there is no connection between the two. But, relationship or not, they are both pretty neat little objects of our affection!
Visit About.com's animal site for great general information about koalas.
