(Plascolarctos cinereus)

Koalas are are not bears.
They are arboreal marsupials, mammals that live in trees and
carry and suckle their joeys (babies) in a pouch on mom's belly for up to six months. Their gestation period is only 35 days.
They grow to be about 30 lbs. and two feet long.


Koalas that live near man, are stressed by loss and contamination of habitat and thus, food sources. Four thousand koalas are killed each year by cars and domestic dogs. Average life span is a mere three to four years.
In the wild, koalas have many more enemies, goannas, dingoes, owls, eagles, and pythons, but can live for as many as 15-17 years.


“Koala” is an Aboriginal word that means “no drink." Their diet consists almost entirely of the leaves from eucalyptus trees. These leaves provide them with enough water so they do not need to descend to the dangers of ground level.

Sadly, koalas are animals with extremely small brains. The two halves of their brains are the size of small walnuts. These two halves are not connected to each other or to the skull bones and sit on the brain stem in liquid that fills 40% of their brain cavities.


In a 24 hour day, they sleep for 19 hours, eat for 3 hours and
for the other 2 hours...