Koala

Shelter for Animal | Koala | The bodies of adult koalas reached a length between 24 and 33 inches while their body weight can reach up to 35 pounds regardless of the region where these animals live.

Koala the Animal

All male individuals are bigger in size compared to females. Females can also be recognized by their pouches.

One more interesting thing is that koalas belonged to a small list of mammals that have fingerprints koala fingerprints are similar to human beings and it may be hard to distinguish between the two.

Marsupial koala facts

Koalas are solitary animals that generally live and their own highly defended home ranges. Although koala’s home ranges may overlap these animals try to avoid confrontations and interactions. If possible koalas are known to communicate with potential intruders with the help of loud vocalizations. Males koalas are more vocal than their females but ladies will communicate with young ones vocally.

Both partners make a variety of different noises when they in distress. During the mating season, male koalas attract females by making very loud or low-pitched sounds called bellows. Bellows usually reached the frequency of 27 Hertz which is an incredibly low sound for such a small animal not only do koala bellows leave many zoo visitors surprised but they also seem like a mystery.

It’s the kind of pitch scientists would expect from an elephant but not a tiny koala there is a theory claiming that koalas have a special organ in their throats that allows them to make rumbling bellows. Such organs hadn’t been seen before and no other mammal has evolved anything similar koalas are tree-dwelling animals that possess a number of adaptations for climbing trees easily.

Boy Appearance

Their bodies are lean with long muscular front and hind limbs koalas have a short tail and thicker fur on the rump to provide pillows so that these animals can easily sit on any tree branches for hours the special structure of the paws enables. This animal to maintain a firm grip even when it’s sleeping koalas also have large sharp claws and rough skin on the bottom of their feet to provide extra friction when climbing trees as well as navigating through various obstacles.

During the hottest periods of Australian days, koalas like to occupy lower tree branches clamping onto the trunks and hugging them tightly scientists used thermal cameras to reveal the koala’s act in such a way to avoid overheating because the temperature of the tree trunks is usually a few degrees lower than the air temperature to the contrary.

In winter koalas prefer to sit on the higher branches or on treetops that are covered in dense foliage. The scientists believe that large trees have their own protective microclimate which is likely to help tree-dwelling creatures like koalas cope with global temperature rise koalas have rather poor eyesight but incredibly developed senses of smell and hearing.

Their incredible sense of smell allows them to choose the least toxic species of eucalyptus while their hearing gives koalas a great advantage over potential predators that like to sneak up on their prey. Koalas spend most of their lives on eucalypt trees and only descend to the ground when they need to find a new tree with more green foliage.

Interesting facts about Koala

Most of the daytime koalas dedicate themselves to sleeping and resting, however, at night they slowly travel from tree to tree in search of food.

Although koalas are slow-moving and cautious in nature in case of emergency. These animals can show unexpected quickness both on the ground and in water. The animal’s good swimming skills may be used to cross rivers in order to escape from heavy flooding koalas exclusively feed on eucalyptus leaves.

Most animals try to stay away from eucalyptus trees because of their toxicity but koalas have specially adapted stomachs that enable them to break down and digest eucalyptus leaves unharmed. These marsupials like chomping down on eucalyptus so much that they can consume over two pounds of leaves in a day.

Koalas diet

Their eucalypt diet is nutritionally poor and has a low caloric intake so koalas in order to conserve energy lead a sedentary lifestyle dedicating up to 20 hours a day to sleep. Although there are over 700 species of eucalyptus growing in Australia. Koalas only use 50 of them for feeding purposes.

They are fussy and will select only the most nutritious tasty and least toxic leaves because of this various koala conservation and research programs find it difficult and expensive to choose the right type of eucalyptus to feed animals.

In captivity, koalas are herbivorous marsupials that today inhabit eucalyptus forests in eastern Australia. Although these animals used to be found on most of the Australian territory. Koalas in the southern parts of their range are considerably larger and have further feathers than it’s on the north because these animals have to stay warm in the colder southern winters primarily nocturnal.

How many koalas are left?

The Koala spends the majority of its time and the branches of the trees where it can easily feed rest and gain camouflage from various predators although these animals are classified as species of Least Concern. There are less than 80,000 koalas left throughout its endemic continent. Koalas greatly suffer from habitat loss due to human activity but this is not the only threat to the future of koalas on earth.

The population of these animals also decreases due to the spread of diseases wildfires droughts and the increased number of vehicles on Australian roads. Scientists calculated that 80% of the original habitat has been destroyed since European settlers came to Australia. Moreover because of the environmental issues increased carbon dioxide levels and reduced protein levels in plants many eucalyptus species become less suitable for koalas

Baby koala

The trees become more toxic and less suitable for consumption once every two years a female Koala gave birth to a baby koala called a Joey. Twins occur very rarely at birth Joey’s are blind furless earless and only about an inch long a Joey has to fully rely on their basic senses of touch and smell to find its way to the mother’s pouch.

Unlike kangaroo pouches which opened towards the top, koala pouches are open outward. Baby koalas can stay securely in their mother’s pouch. Thanks to the special muscle that keeps it tightly closed the Joey spends about six months in the pouch, feeding on milk after seven months. The youngster ventures to leave the pouch for the first time and after 12 months it leaves the pouch for good.

Because Joey no longer drinks milk nor fits in the mother’s pouch for some time after leaving the pouch. The Joey stays under the supervision of its mother and usually spends a lot of its time writing on its mother’s back. Once they got independent the koala’s Joey will remains attach to its mom’s territory for 1-3 years. Koala Joey’s reached maturity at the age of five and is ready to claim their own territory.

These animals are known to live up to 15 years in the wild.

Reference: Wikipedia