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Koala - PHASCOLARCTOS CINEREUS
Endangered
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Koala": From the native Australian word "kulla."
Location: Eastern coastal Australia.
Habitat: Arboreal, in eucalyptus trees.
Description: The koala is a stout, tailless, bearlike animal with large tufted ears, bulbous nose, with the thumb and forefinger opposable to other three digits. Its fur is thick and woolly, generally gray, with a whitish belly. Its overall length is about 32", and the average weight of males is 23 lbs, with females about 18 lbs.
Behavior: Though heavy and clumsy, the koala is otherwise well adapted to life in the trees with strong arms and legs, sharp claws, and TWO opposable digits on its hands to firmly grasp branches. It lives alone or in small groups, and sleeps without a nest in the forks of lower branches, climbing back up the tree to eat during the night. Its diet is highly specialized, eating about 2.5 pounds daily of only about twelve particular species of eucalyptus leaves. It knows to avoid some of these leaves during certain seasons when they contain fatally poisonous prussic acid. The koala has an intestinal pouch 6 to 8 feet long to aid in the digestion of all the bulky fiber. It also eats earth to obtain calcium and other minerals.
Reproduction: Breeding is done September through January, with a gestation of about 35 days. The female produces a single baby per year, which leaves the pouch after eight months and clings to its mother's back. It is weaned when one year old. Koalas become sexually mature at 3 to 4 years of age.
Note: It has been illegal to kill koalas since the 1920s.
Go to the Marsupials Page to get a general discussion of these animals.
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