Cuddly Koala

The Koala is such a cute cuddly looking animal. There are many places here in Australia where you can actually handle these lovely creatures.

Koala's are most common in coastal woodland, where they dine exclusively on about three dozen of the 600 species of Ecualyptus trees in Australia. They will eat about a kilogram of these oily leaves each night.

Koala's rarely drink water directly. They get most of their moisture from dew and from the eucalyptus leaves.

They usually give birth to a single young 19 mm in length and weighing in at 0.5 gm, after a 35 day gestation period, usually in summer months. The newborn climbs into the pouch and remains there for about 6-7 months. By then it is fully furred and aboyt 18 cm long. The young then come and go from the pouch at will for the next two months. The 1 kg cub is carried on the back of the female for an additional few months. The cub remains with its mother for about one year.

Young females may take up residence near their mother, while males disperse to other areas. Maximum life span in captivity is about eight years, but in the wild it can be 10-15 years.

They lead solitary lives, except for mothers with young. They are mostly nocturnal and spend the larger part of the day sleeping in the crotch of a tree. In fact they can spend upto 19 hours a day sleeping.

At night a group can be noisy with grunting and wailing sounds, and males will fight each other if an intruder climbs an occupied tree.

This information is from the book " A Natural History of Australia" by Tim M. Berra.