| Actual Image
Cuddly Koala (40)
SueThomson
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 119 W: 0 N: 192]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-n-g.gif) (603) | I caught this little fella sleeping during the day at the Alma Park Zoo, which is located in the North of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He is a young male named Meja. Cute isn’t he!
About the Koala:
The koala is a small bear-like, tree-dwelling, herbivorous marsupial which averages about 9kg (20lb) in weight. Its fur is thick and usually ash grey with a tinge of brown in places.
Koalas are found in Queensland , New South Wales , Victoria and South Australia . Their range extends from the Atherton Tableland west of Cairns in Qld to islands off the coast of Victoria and South Australia in the south, and west to central and western Qld, NSW and Victoria.
Koalas live in societies, just like humans, so they need to be able to come into contact with other koalas. It is because of this they need to have areas of suitable eucalypt forest which are large enough to support a healthy koala population and to allow for expansion by maturing young koalas. Koalas are highly territorial and in stable breeding groups, individual members of koala society maintain their own "home range" areas.
In Australia there are over 600 types of eucalypts, but koalas will only eat 40-50 varieties with only about 10 being preferred. Within a particular area, as few as one, and generally no more than two or three species of eucalypt will be regularly browsed while a variety of other species, including some non-eucalypts, appear to be browsed occasionally or used for just sitting or sleeping in.
Koalas have a thick woolly fur which protects them from both high and low temperatures.It also acts like a 'raincoat' to repel moisture when it rains. The fur varies in colour from light grey to brown, with patches of white on the chest and neck, inside arms and legs and inside the ears. Mature males are recognisable by the brown 'scent gland' in the centre of their white chest.
The fur on the koala's bottom is densely packed to provide a 'cushion' for the hard branches it sits on, and has a 'speckled' appearance which makes koalas hard to spot from the ground.
An adult male koala can weigh between 8 and 14 kilograms and a female between 6 and 11 kilograms, with the heavier animals coming from the southern areas where they have adapted to the colder climate by an increase in body weight and thicker fur. If you see Koalas in Queensland, they look noticably smaller than Koalas from Victoria.
Koalas are mostly nocturnal animals and they are most active during the night and at dawn and dusk. This is because in the cooler hours they are less likely to lose precious moisture and energy than they would during the hotter daylight hours. An average of eighteen to twenty hours each day are spent resting and sleeping, and the remainder for feeding, moving around, grooming and social interaction.
The Koala's nose is one of its most important features, and it has a very highly developed sense of smell. This is necessary to differentiate between types of gum leaves and to detect whether the leaves are poisonous or not.
Source: http://www.thekoala.com/koala |
|
