Rare koala with different-coloured eyes rescued north of Brisbane

A koala with a rare condition causing it to have one bright blue eye and one brown eye has dazzled vets at Australia Zoo, who have named her Bowie after the late singer.

The marsupial was recently admitted to the zoo's wildlife hospital, north of Brisbane, after apparently being hit by a car.

The hospital's vets were stunned to find she had different-coloured eyes, similar to the appearance of late singer David Bowie.

The extremely rare condition is known as heterochromia, which the hospital said is the result of a recessive gene inherited from her parents affecting the pigmentation in her iris.

"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," vet Sharon Griffiths said.

Dr Griffiths said Bowie had suffered a bruised leg in the road accident.

"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 said.

British singer Bowie was widely reported to have anisocoria, which is characterised by an different-sized pupils and can produce the illusion of different-coloured eyes.

With AFP.