http://www.ck12.org Chapter 11. Understanding Biodiversity: Animals: Mammals
Queensland, Australia. They are noticeably smaller than the koalas that live in Victoria since the temperature there
is less cold.
Climate has greatly affected the lifestyle of the Koala. As a result of the weather patterns of their homeland, they
are nocturnal, since they are less likely to lose precious moisture and energy during the night. In average, they
spend eighteen to twenty hours each day resting and sleeping. With the rest of their time, Koalas feed, move around,
groom, and engage themselves in social interaction.
An interesting feature about the Koalas is their nose, which is highly developed in order for them to be able to
differentiate between different types of gum leaves and to detect whether the leaves are poisonous or not. Still, the
Koalas digestive system is especially adapted to detoxify the poisonous chemicals in the leaves, which are thought
to be produced by the gum trees. These leaves are poisonous as a way for the tree to protect itself from leaf-eating
animals like insects. As a result, Koalas only eat certain types of eucalypt trees and try to avoid trees that grow on
less fertile soil, since those are the most toxic.
References
- Phascolarctos cinereus, Encyclopedia of Life, http://eol.org/pages/128425/overview.
- http://koalas.org/koala-info.html
- http://www.thekoala.com/koala/
- http://www.giftlog.com/pictures/koala_fact.htm
- http://koalaland.com.au/cracking-the-koala-code-fact-sheet