IS A KOALA BEAR A BEAR?

Is a Koala Bear a true bear? This is a very good question and you would think that by being called a 'Koala Bear', the koala would indeed be from the bear family! However the name Koala Bear is not a scientific name and instead is a common name that came about due to the koala's resemblance to a small bear. And you can see why as the Koala has a stout, tailless body, round, fluffy ears, and large, spoon-shaped nose, just like a real bear.

IS A KOALA BEAR A BEAR?

The koala in fact an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae, and its closest living relatives are the wombats.

So if you are looking for someone to blame for the 'Bear' name then you can look towards the early British settlers.

They arrived in Australia's eastern half of the continent which was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788 onwards.

So what is a Koala Bear?

As mentioned before the Koala is a marsupial. This means that it is still classed as a mammal, but one which is characterised by giving birth to relatively undeveloped young. The young koala, which is known as a joey, resides in a pouch with the mother where they stay for the first six to seven months of their life. Once inside the pouch the baby Koala will latch onto a nipple for food. They are fully weaned at around a year and the joey will only re-emerge once it has developed fully.

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Koalas are typically found in open eucalyptus woodlands. This is because eucalyptus leaves make up most of their diet. However, this eucalyptus leaf diet has limited nutritional and caloric content, and so koalas are largely sedentary and sleep for up to 20 hours a day.

As cute and cuddly as they are, Koalas are not particularly social animals with bonding really only existing between mothers and dependent offspring.

Adult males communicate with loud bellows that intimidate rivals and attract mates. In fact recent research has discovered that have evolved a specialised vocal organ that allows them to produce very low-pitched sound. Amazingly, the pitch of the bellow is about 20 times lower than would be expected for an animal of its size, and is more typical of an animal the size of an elephant.

Male Koalas make their territories known by marking their presence with secretions from scent glands located on their chests.

For related articles click onto the following links:
Is a Koala Bear a Bear?
WHAT DO KOALAS EAT?
WHAT IS A KOALA?
WHERE DO KOALAS LIVE?