Koala << koh AH luh >> is an Australian mammal that looks like a teddy bear. It is sometimes called a koala bear or native bear, but the koala is not related to any kind of bear. Koalas have soft, thick fur; a large, hairless nose; round ears; and no tail. The fur is gray or brown on the animal’s back and white underneath. Koalas measure from 25 to 30 inches (64 to 76 centimeters) in length and weigh 15 to 30 pounds (7 to 14 kilograms).
Loading the player...Koala climbing a tree
Koalas have sharp, curved claws; long toes; and a strong grip. They spend nearly all their time in trees and come down only to move to other ones. Koalas are active primarily at night. They sleep most of the day in the forks of eucalyptus trees. Koalas eat mainly the leaves and young shoots of eucalyptuses. They obtain liquids chiefly from eucalyptus leaves. Koalas that live in the wild rarely drink water. The word koala comes from an Australian Aboriginal word meaning no drink.
Koalas are marsupials. Female koalas give birth to tiny, poorly developed offspring. The young koala, or joey, is carried in a pouch on its mother’s abdomen until it develops more completely. Like its closest living relatives, the wombats, the koala has a pouch that opens toward the rear of its body. A joey remains in the pouch for about seven months, suckling on one of the mother’s two nipples. It spends the next six months riding on its mother’s back.
People once hunted koalas for their fur. By the 1920’s, the animals had been almost wiped out by hunters. Since then, the killing of koalas has been prohibited by law. But the koala population has continued to decline. People have cut down eucalyptus forests for housing developments, resorts, and farmland. In addition, much of the koala population is infected by chlamydia, a disease that can cause blindness, infertility in females, and pneumonia. Australian and international conservation organizations are working to counteract the effects of this disease.
Koalas are also vulnerable to natural disasters. Tens of thousands of koalas were killed when bushfires devastated large areas of Australia in late 2019 and early 2020. The Australian government officially considers koalas an endangered species.
