World's Cutest Koala Bear! (MUST WATCH!)

 About Koala Bear

The koala is an iconic animal from Australia. Sometimes named the koala “bear,” this tree-climbing species is a marsupial — a mammal with a pouch for the production of offspring. Even though koalas look fuzzy, their hair is more like a sheep's coarse wool.

In the southern part of its range (Victoria), the koala is about 60 to 85 cm (24 to 33 inches) long and weighs up to 14 kg (31 pounds), but only about half that of subtropical Queensland to the north. Virtually tailless, the body is stout and gray, with a pale yellow or cream-colored chest and mottling on the rump. The broad face has a large, rounded, leathery nose, tiny yellow eyes, and big fluffy ears. The feet are strong and clawed; the two inner digits of the front feet and the innermost digit of the hind feet are opposable for grasping. Because of the animal’s superficial resemblance to a small bear, the koala is sometimes called, albeit erroneously, the koala bear.

On the leaves of certain eucalyptus trees, the koala feeds very selectively. Generally solitary, individuals move within a home range of more than a dozen trees, one of which is favored over the others. If koalas in a restricted area become too numerous, they defoliate preferred food trees and rapidly decline, unable to subsist on even closely related species. The koala has an intestinal pouch (cecum) about 2 meters (7 feet) long, where symbiotic bacteria degrade the tannins and other toxic and complex substances abundant in eucalyptus, to help digest as much as 1.3 kg (3 pounds) of leaves daily. This diet is relatively poor in nutrients and provides the koala little spare energy, so the animal spends long hours simply sitting or sleeping in tree forks, exposed to the elements but insulated by thick fur. Although placid most of the time, koalas produce loud, hollow grunts.

The koala is the only member of the family Phascolarctidae. The pouch opens rearwards, unlike that of other arboreal marsupials. Births are single, occurring after a gestation of 34 to 36 days. At around five months of age, the youngster (called a joey) first puts its head out of the pouch. It is weaned on a soupy predigested eucalyptus called pap for up to six weeks, which is lapped straight from the anus of the mother. It is thought that Pap is derived from the cecum. After weaning, the joey fully emerges from the pouch and clings to the back of the mother until it is almost a year old. A koala can live to about 15 years of age in the wild, somewhat longer in captivity.

Formerly killed in huge numbers for their fur, particularly during the 1920s and ' 30s, koalas dwindled in number from several million to a few hundred thousand. They became virtually extinct in the southern portion of their range, except for a single population in Gippsland, Victoria. Some were translocated to small offshore islands, particularly Phillip Island, where they did so well that in Victoria and southern New South Wales, these koalas were used to replenish much of the original range. Though once again widespread, koala populations are now scattered and separated by urban areas and farmland, which makes them locally vulnerable to extinction. The infection of many populations with Chlamydia, which makes the females infertile, is another problem.

Since 2016, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has identified the koala as a vulnerable species. Between 1984 and 2012, the species decreased by almost 28 percent, primarily due to habitat destruction and fragmentation, which rendered the animal more vulnerable to vehicle strikes and dog predation. Drought and bushfires have also contributed to the decrease in the population of koalas. Wildlife officials expect that the koala population will decline further in the coming decades as temperatures rise and the drying effects of climate change become more pronounced in Australia.

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