Habitat of koalas
Koalas live in Australia specifically in the East and southeast of Australia, especially in the states of Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria, and also lives in eucalyptus forests, and koalas spend most of their time among the thorns in the branches of eucalyptus trees, it eats, sleeps on the trees, and descends only to go to another tree.
Koalas are classified as herbivores, they tend to eat foods that contain eucalyptus leaves mainly, but may feed on other tree species such as eucalyptus, according to their abundance, and geographical location, koalas prefer to eat 30 species of eucalyptus trees out of 600 species and choose plants that contain a higher percentage of protein, and a lower percentage of fiber and 200 to 500 grams of green camphor every day, and since the leaves of this plant have a high water content, female koalas do not need to resort to other sources of water to meet their needs from it, but male koalas need an additional water source from the ground, or from hollow trees to provide enough water for their large bodies and metabolic demands.
information about koalas
The most important information about the koala can be summarized as follows:
- Koalas found in the eucalyptus forests of eastern Australia have gray fur, a cream-colored chest, strongly clawed feet, which excellently equip them to live on tree branches.
- The koala is about 60 centimeters long, about 60 centimeters wide, and weighs about 14 kilograms. Koalas are commonly called koalas, but koalas are not considered Bears at all, they are classified from the marsupial family, a group of mammals.
- Most have pockets where newborns grow where a koala baby immediately after birth enters its mother's pod, is blind and deaf, and uses its strong sense of touch and smell, along with natural instinct, to find its way.
- The baby koala dies in the pod for six months, and as soon as it becomes strong enough, it climbs on its mother's back for another six months.
- Eucalyptus leaves are very poisonous, but the koala's digestive system allows it to decompose the leaves without harm.
Dietary habits of koalas in Australia
As mentioned earlier, the eucalyptus tree or the so-called eucalyptus tree is the basic food for koalas, where he eats up to 14 ounces a day, equivalent to one pound, and this tree is characterized by its very oily leaves, which can be very toxic to some animals, and it is also characterized by its fibrous leaves, making it difficult to chew internal molars chewed well to get water and all the elements Food stored inside the Leaf, the koala also has the so-called kikum, a part of the digestive system that contains microorganisms that digest hard eucalyptus leaves.
Koalas in Australia and the threat of extinction
At one time the koalas did not receive enough attention from the responsible authorities, but in 2012 the koalas were added to the endangered animals by the Australian government, due to the decline of koalas numbers significantly, as a result of hunting koalas by Indigenous people، to use it as a source of food, and the matter developed in the early twentieth century، to hunt koalas by European settlers، to remove large-scale executions of koalas, over one million executed In 1919, from 1926 to 1928, nearly 600,000 koalas were killed by hoses, guns, and poisons due to drought-induced poverty.
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