Koalas

In science class we just finished our animal behavior unit. Each student chose an animal and did a project on it. We chose the koala. This fascinating animal is a mammal, specifically a marsupial. Koalas usually survive 10 years in the wild, in captivity however they live to almost double that time. A couple interesting facts about koalas is that, they sleep 18-20 hours a day and the other 4-6 hours they spend eating! We both believe that many people would love to live like a koala! Koalas only eat eucalyptus leaves, and because of this they have to live in or near eucalyptus trees. Another fact is that the koala's closest relative is the wombat.

Koalas have many different behaviors to support their interesting lifestyle. One example would be, because the Koala is a marsupial the baby is only inside its mother's stomach for 35 days before being born. When they are born they are helpless, blind, deaf and can barely hold their own body weight. They quickly have to maneuver their way to their mother's pouch and start eating right away. A couple other behaviors the koala demonstrates are, the koala has a special gland on it's chest that provides a scent. It will rub this gland on trees marking its territory. The male koala also has a pair of larger thicker vocal cords to make low pitched mating calls. We both hope you enjoyed learning about koalas as much as we did! By Tenny and Cat