About Koala Bear

The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae.

The koala is found in coastal regions of eastern and southern Australia, from near Adelaide to the southern part of Cape York Peninsula. Populations also extend for considerable distances inland in regions with enough moisture to support suitable woodlands. The koalas of South Australia were largely exterminated during the early part of the 20th century, but the state has since been repopulated with Victorian stock. The koala is not found in Tasmania or Western Australia.

They are often called "Koala Bears" But Koalas are not bears. Many people think Koalas look like bears because they have round bodies, big ears, and broad, flat noses. Koalas look like cuddly toy teddy bears. These amazing Australian mammals "Koala Bears" are actually related to the Kangaroo. This means the Koala is a marsupial (mar –SOO – pee – ul).

If you ask people around the world to choose their favorite wild animal: near the top of any list of the favorites ones, would probably be the Koala Bears. Koala bearis one of the animal symbols of Australi.

The koala is a marsupial that everybody likes; it is one of the most sought after animals and one that most arouses curiosity in people. Its popularity stems not only from its physical characteristics, but from its behavior as it is a very quiet animal. koala.

The Charming, koala has cool calm and collected written all over him. It is also pretty lazy passes most of the time sleeping.

Present in the advertising campaigns of Australian tourist agencies all over the world and on various commercial products, koalas have become the symbol of the oceanic continent. In their country of origin, however, these cute marsupials are experiencing various problems that cause their survival to become endangered.

A typical Victorian koala (formerly P. cinereus victor) has longer, thicker fur, is a darker, softer grey, often with chocolate-brown highlights on the back and forearms, and has a more prominently light-coloured ventral side and fluffy white ear tufts. Typical and New South Wales koala weights are 12 kg (26 lb) for males and 8.5 kg (19 lb) for females. In tropical and sub-tropical Queensland, however, the koala is smaller (at around 6.5 kg (14 lb) for an average male and just over 5 kg (11 lb) for an average female), a lighter often rather scruffy grey in colour, and has shorter, thinner fur. In Queensland, the koala was previously classified as the subspecies P. cinereus adustus, and the intermediate forms in New South Wales as P. cinereus cinereus. A fourth variation, though not technically a subspecies, is Phascolarctos cinereus aurum, or in English "golden koala", which has a slight golden tinge to the fur as a result of an absence of the melanin pigment that produces albinism in most other mammalian species. The variation from one form to another is continuous and there are substantial differences between individual koalas in any given region such as hair colour.

The origins of the koala are unclear, although almost certainly they descended from terrestrial wombat-like animals. Koala fossils are quite rare, but some have been found in northern Australia dating to 20 million years ago. During this time, the northern half of Australia was rainforest. The koala did not specialise in a diet of eucalyptus until the climate cooled and eucalypt forests grew in the place of rainforests. The fossil record indicates that before 50,000 years ago, giant koalas inhabited the southern regions of Australia. The koala fills the same ecological role as the sloths of South America.