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Animals of the World: The Koala.

The Koala - Australia

Animals of the World: The Koala.

 

Koalas are not bears. They are tree-climbing animals (they are marsupials like kangaroos). One can find them only in Australia and on the East coast mainly. Following a selective adaptation, the koala eats eucalyptus. Firs stop other plants from growing because of their needles which make the ground tart when falling. Similarly, eucalyptus stops other plants from growing and is uneatable by other animals. The herbivorous, having nothing more to eat, have to go, followed by their predators. The koalas, being the only ones to eat eucalyptus, do not have any predator –which permitted them to survive till this day.

Baby koalas can not digest eucalyptus. It is the mother who will transmit the necessary bacterium to digest the plant, during the first year of his life. Koalas are very delicate. They eat only specific species of eucalyptus. They are numbered between 50.000 and 100.000. Eucalyptus does not put to sleep koalas. The koala can live twelve years (some people think koalas can live up to 18 or 20 years). The Latin scientific name of the koala is: Phascolarctos Cinereus –which means grey bear with a pouch (when this name was given, one did not know what a marsupial was.)

It is often heard that in Aboriginal, “koala” means: “the one who doesn't drink”, which is totally wrong. The origin of the word “koala” is unknown. There are numerous assumptions. Aborigines gave the koalas many names. Their height is approximately 78 cm for the males and 72 cm for the females. In the south of Australia, male koalas weight around 11,8 kg and female koalas around 7,9 kg. Whereas in the north of Australia where there is another species of koalas, they are smaller (6,5 kg for the males and 5,1 kg for the females) and their colour tend from grey to brown with white spots.

Keywords:

koala animal

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Wednesday March, 04, 2015 at 07:25 AM

That was great.By the way I love koalas

4/5

Sunday November, 30, 2014 at 03:43 AM

I love this story

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