KOALA

A bear or not a bear? Well, although sometimes known, as the 'native bear' or Koala bear, koalas are not bears. Koalas, in fact, have no relation to the bear family at all. 

They are marsupials, which means that they give birth to immature young which develop further in the safety of a pouch. 
Koalas are probably the most loved animal in the Australian fauna. With a large round head, furry ears and stout body covered with thick grey and white fur the koala simply seems to have been made for cuddling. 
Appearances can be deceptive, however.
Unless hand raised in a zoo, koalas do not like to be handled by humans.

Koalas are an arboreal, or tree-dwelling marsupial. They are very fussy eaters, existing mainly on a diet of a few species of eucalypts. They eat up to 500grams of leaves per day. Eucalyptus leaves contain very little nutrition and are very hard to digest, so koalas need to sleep up to 18 hours each day to conserve energy.

The koala breeding season is from about September to March and a single offspring, very occasionally twins, is born about 35 days later. Despite being only 2 centimetres long and blind, the young koala, called a 'joey', forces its way through its mother’s fur to reach her pouch and stays there for six to seven months, sucking milk from its mother’s teat. At about 3 months, its eyes open and at six months the young joey begins to poke its head out of the pouch for the first time. It is at this age that it begins to feed on ‘pap’ which is a semi-liquid form of the mother’s droppings. Pap is a vital part of the baby’s diet because it contains special micro-organisms which the young koala needs before it is able to tolerate it ’s gumleaf diet. After a few weeks of pap feeding, the joey emerges fully from the pouch and begins to ride on the mother's abdomen and back, slowly becoming accustomed to its diet of gumleaves. It still returns to the pouch to drink milk, and even when it is too big to fit inside, the teat elongates to protrude from the pouch so it can still suckle. The joey continues to feed from its mother until she becomes pregnant with next season’s young.

 Koalas are found only in the eastern states of Australia - Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. Koalas in the colder southern parts of Australia are bigger and have thicker fur than those in the warmer northern areas. This is thought to be an adaptation to the colder climate in the south.

The name ‘Koala’ is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘no drink’. Koalas are found only in the eucalyptus forests of eastern Australia, and their closest relatives are the wombats, which live on the ground.

Koalas have thick woolly fur which protects them from both heat and cold. It also acts like a ‘‘raincoat’’ repelling moisture, so they do not get wet when it rains.