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koalas poisoned by eucalyptus
''[http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060411b.htm H.M. Wheelwright], the 'old bushman' was part of the great influx of Europeans that arrived in Victoria during the gold rush years of the early 1850s. He had trained as a lawyer but apparently could not make a living out of either law or gold in the colonies, and ended up suppling the Melbourne market with game animals that he sho on the nearby Mornington Peinsula. He observed that koala flesh was edible -- 'not unlike that of the northern bear in taste' -- and that it was 'considered a delicacy by the blacks.' He also noted that koalas were 'extremely difficult to shoot on account of their thick hide.'
''[http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060411b.htm H.M. Wheelwright], the 'old bushman' was part of the great influx of Europeans that arrived in Victoria during the gold rush years of the early 1850s. He had trained as a lawyer but apparently could not make a living out of either law or gold in the colonies, and ended up suppling the Melbourne market with game animals that he sho on the nearby Mornington Peinsula. He observed that koala flesh was edible -- 'not unlike that of the northern bear in taste' -- and that it was 'considered a delicacy by the blacks.' He also noted that koalas were 'extremely difficult to shoot on account of their thick hide.'
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From the Encycopedia of Clinical Toxicology by Rossoff, entry on Eucalyptus, p. 444
"Rumors of no ill-effects when ingested by koala bears are false, as young shoots and leaves have killed many of them with prussic acid poisoning." (No reference is given).