67 Fascinating Facts About Koalas | Legacy Facts

# Koalas are found in eastern Australia's Eucalyptus Forests. They have a cream-colored chest with gray fur and strong, clawed feet, perfect for living in tree branches.

# Koalas measures around 60 to 85 centimeters (24 to 33 inches) long and weighs approximately 14 kg (31 pounds).

# Koala bears are not bears instead they are marsupials.

# The term koala means "An animal that does not drink."

# The koala's scientific name is Phascolarctos cinereus, from the Greek word phaskolos, which means "pouch," and arktos simply means "bear."

# The brain of a koala represents only 0.2 percent of its body weight.

# The brain size of modern koalas has reduced significantly from their ancestors, possibly as an adaptation to the low energy they obtain from their diets.

# Koalas are unable to perform complex, unfamiliar tasks, such as eating leaves off flat surfaces, because of their small brains.

# Koalas have large black or pink-colored noses.

# Koalas have a very good sense of smell and very poor eyesight which ultimately forces them to rely on their ears instead of their eyes to avoid predators and travel from tree to tree.

# Koalas eat only leaves of eucalyptus and spend most of their lives on the branches of these trees.

# The koalas eat only 50 types of eucalyptus, out of 700 different types.

# While the leaves of eucalyptus are poisonous to almost every other animal, koalas can sustain as a singular diet due to their digestive tract, which produces bacteria to break down the poison while they sleep.

# Koalas bears store leaves in their cheek pouches to eat them later.

# The only time koalas leave their tree is to find a tree that has more leaves to eat.

# A fully grown koala can eat around 2.2 lbs (1 kg) of leaves in a single night.

# Koalas don't drink much water; instead, they get moisture from the eucalyptus leaves.

# Koalas have fingerprints similar to humans.

# Koalas have sharp claws that help them to climb trees.

# Wild koalas are able to walk 1 km overnight and are still within their home range.

# Koalas communicates with each other by making a sound like a snore followed by a belch.

# Koalas sleeps as much as 20 hours a day.

# Koalas bears are nocturnal.

# Koalas bears are excellent swimmers.

# Koalas spends just 15 minutes for social activity every day.

# Koalas aren't very social animals and generally stay alone.

# Generally, Koalas are solitary animals — the male and female koalas meet only to mate.

# Koalas smell like the oil in leaves of eucalyptus because they consume too many.

# Every male koala has a scent gland on their chest which they rub on the trees to mark their territories.

# Like the kangaroo, they are also capable of keeping their babies in their pouch.

# The main natural predators of koalas are household dogs.

# A male Koala has a bifurcated penis and a female Koala has two vaginas.

# Female koalas are cougars, which means they usually mate with younger males.

# Only one koala born to a female every year.

# The gestation period of a koala lasts from 33 to 35 days.

# A koala baby is called a "joey."

# A just-born baby koala is normally less than 1 inch long.

# A newborn cub doesn't have fur on its body and the eyes and ears are also closed.

# A newborn koala typically stays for around six months inside their mother's pouch.

# Koalas, young elephants, pandas, and hippos eat their mother's feces.

# In the fourth year of their lives a koala gets fully grown.

# Koalas have a different type of fur in different areas.

# Koalas hug trees during hot days to cool off.

# Koalas furry tail provides them comfort while sitting on trees for long hours.

# Gumtrees serve as food and as a place for koalas to live.

# Koalas in the wild can live up to 12 to 14 years. But if someone is taking care of them, or if they're in captivity they can live 16 to 20 years.

# Darwin suggested that the appendix may have been used for digesting leaves. Koala and horse appendixes support this theory which does just that.

# Koalas are closely related to kangaroos and wombats.

# Koalas need about 100 trees each to survive, meaning that even though they are not hunted as they once were, their population is decreasing as the forests that make up their homes disappear.

# Before the British settlers arrived in Australia there were over 10 million koalas. Now, in the wild, there are about 43,000.

# With the arrival of English settlers in Australia, koalas started to be hunted and killed for their pelts which were used in the new colonies as currency.

# Every day, 14 football-fields worth the tree-filled habitats of the koalas are destroyed.

# Deforestation in certain regions of Australia could cause koala extinction as early as 2050 if the current rate continues.

# Millions of koalas were killed for sport and trading during the 1920s, causing the species to almost become extinct.

# Female koalas can engage in lesbian behavior when they are in captivity.

# Australian koalas are at risk of extinction because 80 percent of the population of the koala is infected with chlamydia.

# Koalas can have heterochromia just like humans.

# In the late 1930s, the Government of Australia declared koalas a "protected species."

# Koalas are currently classified as a vulnerable species, with between 43,000 and 80,000 koalas remaining in the wild.

# Koalas can not legally be kept as pets.

# Koalas started evolving nearly 45 million years ago, just around the time Australia was detached from Antarctica and began to move north.

# The Koala fossils discovered in Australia was dated to 20 million years ago.

# Fifteen million years ago, the size of the Koala species was 20 times bigger than that of the Koala today.

# Aboriginal people ate koalas but in many of their myths and legends, they used them as well.

# The koala was first noted in 1798 by John Price, an English explorer, who helped make the little animal famous in the coming years.

# Australia has ten times more camels than koalas.

# Thieves planned to steal one of the koalas from a zoo in 2006 but changed their mind after it proved too vicious and then stole a crocodile instead which was easier.

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