Australia

By: Cayla N.

Koala’s are very cute animals, they can be found in eucalyptus trees in Australia. They are

adorable grey and white colored animals. They can grow to be 60- 85 cm. long, and weigh up to about 14 kg.

Koalas feed off of eucalyptus trees, mainly at night. They love to hug trees, they spend most of their time sleeping on the trees. Koalas don’t drink very much water, they get their water from the moisture of the trees. In Aborigine language, koala means “no water.” They get very easily dehydrated in hot weather.

Koalas are on the list for threatened species. The most serious hazard to the population, is the trees being cut down in Australia for purposes of industrial and rural reasons. This is

taking away the two of the four ways to live, water, (from the trees), and a place to live (in the trees).

Eucalyptus leaves are really tough and poisonous, but luckily, koalas have a digestive organ called a cecum, to let them eat the leaves perfectly undamaged. They love sleeping in the trees, they spend almost the whole day sleeping. They sleep up to 18 full hours. Crazy right? Well, when they’re not dining on leaves, they just sleep, they don’t have very much energy.

Lots of people think koalas are koala bears, but they’re actually marsupials! They may look like bears with their ears, but they actually share more characteristics with marsupials, they actually share many characteristics with wombats.

Have you ever wondered, how did those koalas get up there? Well koalas have very acute claws, it helps them climb trees much easier. You may be surprised, but koalas have fingerprints similar to humans / homosapien.