LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Louisville Zoo is saying, “G’day y’all” to two new Australian guests making their way to town. Dharuk and Telowie, two male Koalas, will be coming from the San Diego Zoo in California.

They will join the Louisville Zoo indefinitely as part of an agreement with the Australian government and will arrive later this June.

Dharuk, a 2-year-old, is named after an Aboriginal language of the blue mountains, pronounce “da’ rook.” 

Dharuk is 2 years old and named after an Aboriginal language of the blue mountains. (Louisville Zoo)

Telowie (“tell ou-ee”) is 4 years old, and is named for the saltbush plan in Australia. His name means “old man saltbush by the waterhole.”

The two will make their home at the foot of Glacier Run alongside other Australian species at the zoo. It is a a renovated habitat near Lorikeet Landing that previously housed snowy owls and later, the zoo’s red panda.

Louisville Zoo Director Dan Maloney previously served at the Melbourne Zoo in Australia and is excited to bring koalas back to Louisville. “Koalas are fantastic ambassadors for Australia, representing a truly unique species,” Maloney said. “I am excited to see families experience our friends from the ‘Land Down Under’!”

Koalas were temporarily featured at the zoo during the 1980s and again in the early 2000s.

Upon their arrival, the two koalas will undergo a standard 30-day quarantine period in their prepared space, which will enable them to be on exhibit sooner than the usual duration. They will be housed separately once on exhibit, as koalas are territorial and solitary in the wild, according to the zoo.

The zoo explained guests will probably see the koalas sleeping most days. Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves almost exclusively. The eucalyptus that Dharuk and Telowie consume will be from one of only two eucalyptus farms in the U.S.

The word “koala” is believed to originate from the Dharug language, spoken by Aboriginal people in Australia. “Koala” means “no drink,” which may be a reference to the marsupial’s low water intake. These animals stay hydrated through the water content in the eucalyptus leaves that form the bulk of their diet.

Koalas are listed as decreasing in the vanishing wild by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. The zoo said the two main threats for Koalas are human development and subsequent habitat destruction.