Australia is the only place on the planet where the koala lives - an unusual marsupial animal, similar to a funny teddy bear. It is impossible to confuse it with another living being, it is so unique.
Koala: appearance
This is a small animal belonging to the marsupial family, weighing from 7 to 16 kg. It is easy to recognize the koala by its large wide head, on which a large nose with a black back is very prominent, fur-covered ears and small eyes.
Thick gray coat is short, soft, slightly darker on the back and lighter in the abdomen. This animal spends all its life on a tree, so its limbs are very strong, adapted to cling to a tree when climbing. Sharp, long claws that can support the weight of the animal also help. Until now, scientists can not decide who the koala is - a bear, a raccoon or someone else. In zoos, where koalas live, there is always a large crowd of people who want to look at these amazing and unusual animals.
Habitat
These marsupials live only in southeastern Australia and on neighboring islands. Many years ago they inhabited the whole continent, but with the advent of immigrants they were forced out of their original places. Aborigines treat this animal with great respect. According to ancient legend, it was the giant ancestor of the koala that helped people get to this continent.
The forests where the koala lives are mostly humid tropical and subtropical. Usually these animals settle near water, where a lot of eucalyptus grows. The leaves of this plant are the only food that the koala consumes. In the crowns of eucalyptus, the marsupial bear spends almost its entire life, descending only in order to move to other thickets.
Marsupial Bear Food
The diet of koalas is not diverse. These are exclusively leaves and young shoots of eucalyptus. These parts of the plant contain a small amount of protein and a lot of toxic compounds, including hydrocyanic acid. It is established that in the daily portion of leaves eaten by a koala, there is such an amount of poison that can kill any other animal. This is probably why neither predators nor hunters are interested in koalas as prey.
These animals choose the most suitable types of eucalyptus for food, preferring those trees that grow on more fertile soils. In their leaves, the concentration of poison is much lower. Helps animals to find the necessary plants, their developed sense of smell. In captivity, there is no such choice, which can even threaten poisoning. An interesting fact is that, living in a certain part of the mainland, animals feed only on the leaves of trees growing near their "house". That is why they very carefully accustom this animal to a new diet in the zoo, where koalas live. The country, located on another continent, is forced to import the first time leaves for the animal from the area from which it was brought. Up to 1 kg of leaves is required per day. This animal practically does not drink water at all. He needs enough moisture from succulent leaves.
Koala features
This animal has some interesting features that make it truly unique. The papillary pattern on his fingerprints is almost indistinguishable from the human. Even with rather large parents, whose weight is at least 8 kg, the cub is born completely tiny, the size of a bean grain and weighing only 6 g. It grows up, already being in a well-developed leathery fold located on the mother’s stomach and resembling a bag.
The baby is there for six months, eating breast milk. Then it moves to the back of the parent. Where the koala lives, there are no woody predators that pose a threat, so this animal is always very slow and calm.
Marsupial Bear Lifestyle
This animal is able to sleep right on the branches up to 20 hours a day, only at night moving through the trees, obtaining food. Such inactivity is due to too slow metabolism in this animal, which makes the energy demand greatly reduced. For several hours, koalas can be completely still.
But at the moment of danger, they are able to make excellent jumps and move fairly quickly, including in the water.
By their slowness and inactivity, these animals even more resemble a soft toy. Such a funny appearance captivates people, and they gladly tame animals.
And then it doesn’t matter where the koala lives, in which country, it adapts very easily, becoming a domestic and friendly animal.
Marsupial animals
Australia is a country famous for unusual animals living there, completely unlike those that we are used to seeing in our homeland. They differ not only in appearance, but also have a special body structure. The country where the koala lives is also famous for other marsupial animals. All of them are united by a fold of skin on the stomach that resembles a bag. It is in it that the females carry their cubs for several months until they grow up. But even the kids who have grown up and are able to move independently have not parted with their mother’s bag for a long time.
Another very famous marsupial animal is the kangaroo. It has been known to everyone since childhood. A burrowing herbivorous animal, similar to a bear, is called a wombat and can reach a size of up to a meter and weigh about 40 kg. A rather beautiful small animal is a marsupial anteater nambat, eating termites. On the verge of extinction is a very rare animal of the marsupial family - spotted marten. This is a predator that feeds on small animals - mice, rabbits, birds, etc. And yet Australia is best known as a country where koalas and kangaroos live. They can rightfully be considered the hallmark of this continent.