![]() ![]() Land clearing, logging, and bushfires-especially the devastating 2019-2020 season-have destroyed much of the forest they live in. Now they face serious threats from habitat loss. Koala numbers plummeted in the late 19th and early 20th century from hunting for their fur. They eat so much eucalyptus that they often take on its smell. Koalas can even store leaves in their cheek pouches for later. Koalas usually don’t drink much water as they get most of their moisture from these leaves. Tucked into forks or nooks in the trees, koalas may sleep for 18 to 22 hours. That’s why koalas sleep so much- they get very little energy from their diet. Eucalyptus is toxic, so the koala’s digestive system has to work hard to digest it, breaking down the toxins and extracting limited nutrients. Koalas can eat more than a pound of eucalyptus leaves a day. They rely on the eucalyptus tree for both habitat and food. When not sleeping, they’re usually eating. Koalas live in the eucalyptus forests of southeastern and eastern Australia. ![]() They have two toes, fused together, on their feet, which they use to comb their fur. They have two opposing thumbs on their hands, and both their feet and hands have rough pads and claws to grab onto branches. Though koalas look fuzzy, their hair is more like the coarse wool of a sheep. Often called the koala “bear,” this tree-climbing animal is a marsupial-a mammal with a pouch for the development of offspring. The koala is an iconic Australian animal. "Koalas were thought to gain the majority of the water that they require from the moisture content in the leaves that they feed on and to drink water unintentionally in the wild by eating wet leaves after rain, or when dew is present on the leaf surface," Mella added.Current Population Trend: Decreasing What is the koala? Drinking behaviour has often been considered unusual and attributed to disease or to severe heat stress," Mella said. "Koalas have been alleged to never drink free water in the wild, or to drink only occasionally. The question of their water consumption had long been puzzling. The word koala is thought to have meant "no drink" in one of the Australian Aboriginal languages. They rely on a diet of eucalyptus leaves, normally consuming around 500 to 800 grams daily. Koalas, which are not bears despite a common misconception, spend most of their lives high up in eucalyptus trees. If we watch them carefully, they will tell us," said University of Sydney ethologist Valentina Mella, lead author of the research published this week in the journal Ethology. "I think the main message is that behavioural observations in the wild are very important to establish what is normal and what is unusual, and to truly understand what animals need. The findings, which the researchers said may be useful in koala conservation efforts, were based on 46 observations of koalas in the wild from 2006 to 2019, mostly at You Yangs Regional Park in Victoria state. Scientists have solved a lingering mystery about koala behaviour - how these tree-dwelling marsupials native to Australia consume enough water to live.Ī new study describes koala drinking behaviour in the wild for the first time, finding that they lick water running down the smooth surface of tree trunks during rainfall - a phenomenon called "stemflow" - and do not rely merely on the water content of the leaves that make up their diet. ![]()
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