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Australian Land Animals
Koala
The Koala belongs to a special group of Australian mammals, called marsupials. Sometimes people call them 'Koala bears' but the Koala is not a bear.
Marsupials are mammals with a pouch. The female carries her baby in the pouch for 6 or 7 months after it is born. The baby, called a joey, feeds on its mother's milk inside the pouch. After it leaves the pouch, the baby travels around on its mother's back.
Koalas have soft, thick, grey or brown fur on their backs. The fur on the stomach is white. Koalas have large, hairless noses and round ears. Koalas don't have tails. Adult Koalas measure between 64 to 76 centimetres in length and weigh between 7 and 14 kilograms.
Koalas eat the leaves and young shoots of some kinds of eucalyptus trees. They spend nearly all their time in the trees using their sharp, curved claws and long toes to climb about and to hold on to the tree branches. Koalas sleep most of the day and feed and move from tree to tree mainly at night. Koalas don't often drink water, they get moisture from eucalyptus leaves.
In Australia there are over 600 types of eucalypts, but a large proportion of these are not eaten by Koalas. Within a particular area, only one to three species of eucalypt will be regularly browsed (eaten), while a variety of other species, including some non-eucalypts, are browsed occasionally or used for just sitting or sleeping in. Different species of eucalypts grow in different parts of Australia, so a Koala in Victoria would have a very different diet from one in Queensland.
Once people hunted Koalas for their fur and by the 1920's the animals were almost extinct. Laws were passed to protect the Koalas from hunters but the Koala is still a threatened species. Conservation organisations in Australia and around the world are working hard to help save the Koalas.
Koalas live on a diet of eucalytus leaves alone. They absorb moisture from the gum leaves, so rarely need to drink. In a long drought, the water content of leaves is reduced, so Koalas may sometimes have to look for water to drink.
Related weblinks -
• Learn about efforts to protect the Koala - http://www.savethekoala.com/
• More information about Koala's - http://www.thekoala.com/koala/