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Koalas
Interesting creatures…
Kaieteur News- The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae.
Koalas are found in coastal areas of the island’s eastern and southern regions, inhabiting Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia.
Its closest living relatives are the wombats. The koala is found in coastal areas of the island’s eastern and southern regions, inhabiting Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia.
It is easily recognisable by its stout, tailless body and large head with round, fluffy ears and large, dark nose. Fur colour ranges from silver grey to chocolate brown. Koalas from the northern populations are typically smaller and lighter in colour than their counterparts further south. These populations are possibly separate subspecies, but not all researchers accept this.
Koalas typically inhabit open Eucalyptus woodland, as the leaves of these trees make up most of their diet. This eucalyptus diet has low nutritional and caloric content and contains toxic compounds that deter most other mammals from feeding on it. Koalas are largely sedentary and sleep up to twenty hours a day.
Koalas
They are asocial, only mothers bond to dependent offspring. Adult males communicate with bellows that intimidate rivals and attract mates. Males mark their presence with secretions from scent glands located on their chests. Like other marsupials, koalas give birth to young known as joeys at a very early stage of development.
They crawl into their mothers’ pouches, where they live for their first six to seven months. They are fully weaned around a year old. Koalas have few natural predators and parasites, but are threatened by pathogens such as Chlamydiaceae bacteria and koala retrovirus.
(Koalas)
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