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| Koalas sleep secret koalas in the trees |
Description of the koala
The koala is a marsupial that resembles a teddy bear. About the size of a good-sized cat, it has a gray to brown coat all over its stocky body, with a white patch on the chin, chest, and inner side of the extremities. The head, broad and massive about the body, is adorned with large round ears, well defined and fringed with white hairs. The round, hairless nose is prominent. The long legs have five elongated toes with claws. The first two fingers of the front hands and the first three of the backhands are opposed, to allowing them to climb trees. The interior is lined with pads. Koalas are completely tailless. The female has a follicular sac that houses the udder.
the koala house
The koala belongs to the Australian mainland as well as some of the neighboring islands. They were once widespread across the country, but today they are confined to the east coast from Queensland to New South Wales and the state of Victoria. Some populations live in remote areas (outback), but they depend mainly on the availability of the trees on which they feed: certain species of eucalyptus. These usually grow near streams.
koala behavior
The koala is a calm and solitary animal, and is often a nocturnal animal. He gives up his good nature when an intruder risks himself on his territory, which he can then violently defend. Although the majority of individuals live alone, they are in constant contact thanks to their scent markings. Although the sounds made by koalas are few because the animal is generally silent, they range from howls and screeches to crying, moaning, and hoarse barking. It spends most of its time in trees, where it rarely descends in search of food and sleep. His sight is not the most efficient, but he compensates for this handicap by smell. And excellent hearing. He's a bit clumsy on the ground, but he often has to venture out there to reach a tree too far so you can reach him through the foliage. The koala has a few predators, the main ones being the dingo and a few birds of prey, as well as some companion dogs.
koala reproduction
The female has only one litter per year and gives birth to only one young, rarely two, at the end of a gestation period of about 35 days. The young are 1.5 to 1.8 cm long at birth, and when their mother does not help them slip into the marsupial, they are forced to crawl into it. It then remains attached to the udder for six to seven months before venturing outside. Between the 22nd and the 30th week, in addition to milk, the young receive nutritional supplements in the form of porridge made up of a partially digested soft vegetable substance, which facilitates weaning to obtain the juvenile and the bacteria necessary for the digestion of eucalyptus leaves. After withdrawal is effective until the seventh or eighth month, the young grow faster and acquire a plump body size. When his mother moves, he then clings to her back. He becomes independent until the twelfth month, when his mother becomes pregnant but can stay with her for 18 months before she becomes "far away". He is sexually mature between two and three years old, but only really able to produce between four and five years old.
koala diet
Koalas feed almost exclusively on the leaves and bark of certain species of eucalyptus, of which they eat between 500 and 1000 grams per day. It can only consume 120 species of eucalyptus out of the 800 or so species recorded in Australia. Each animal is content with two or three trees, depending on the region in which it grows. The animal does not drink and is satisfied with the water content of the leaves. They are among the few animals that can consume foods very rich in tannins, oils, and lignin, with compounds that can be toxic to most mammals. To make up for the lack of minerals in the leaves, koalas occasionally swallow the soil
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| Koalas sleep secret koalas in the trees |
The threats to koalas are numerous. The main ones come from human activities: urbanization, logging which divides up the wooded areas essential to their survival, various infrastructures, anti-vehicle shocks, etc. We must also add diseases, predators, droughts, and destructive fires that sometimes burn. Paradoxically, too, the overpopulation of the islands in which they were introduced has provoked food competition. In 2004, on Kangaroo Island where koalas were introduced, it came to the destruction of vegetation to the point of professor of ecology, it is estimated that two thirds, or 20 thousand marsupials, had to be slaughtered, while in other regions it was in decline ... Sterilization and transmission were to other sites are among the alternatives that have been retained. Added to this is climate change.
Some of the national parks where you can see koalas in their natural habitat:
Flinders Chase National Park on Kangaroo Island;
the Hillsville reserve in Victoria;
You Youngs National Park;
Raymond Island near Paynesville.