Transcript Physical Features

By: AH
Physical Features
 Big, with gray and
white, thick, fuzzy fur
 Face is round with two
small, round, squinty
eyes
 Two big, round hairy
ears
 Big, ugly black, oval
nose
 Two arms, two short
legs
 Each leg has three toes
with sharp claws
 They can grow to 3 feet
tall
 They can weigh from
10 to 30 pounds
Species
• They are mammals
• They are marsupials
(animal with a pouch)
• Scientific name is
Phascolaretos Cinereous
Habitat/Climate
Koalas live in the southeast of
Australia and the southern
hemisphere
They live in eucalyptus forests
where they have a lot of leaves.
Koalas live in a cool climate in
Australia. Sometimes its hot but
not too cold.
Life Span
Koalas
can live
up to 17 years of
age
Generally males
live up to 12
years of age.
Food
Koalas are herbivores, because they eat
eucalyptus leaves and plants in trees.
They usually stay in a small area of trees.
A koala eats three pounds of leaves a day.
Koalas don’t get a lot of nutrients and that’s why
they are always sleeping
Prey & Predators
Koala’s predators are wild dogs,
called Dingoes, traffic, fire, and
humans. Koalas don’t hunt
anything!
Babies
Koalas breed once a
year,
koalas are pregnant
for 35 days.
The babies live in the
mom’s pouch for 6
months and then
they live on their
mom’s backs until
they are a year
old.
Physical Adaptations
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Koalas have soft fur to help protect them
from the hot and the cold
Koalas have special feet and hands to help
them climb trees.
They have two thumbs on each hand which
help them get a good grip on branches.
Strong nailed claws which help them with
climbing
Koalas are speckled which makes them hard
to see in the trees. That protects them from
dingoes.
Behavior
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Koalas can sleep about fourteen
hours a day in the wild because they
are very lazy, but sometimes they
can be hyper.
Koalas are nocturnal mammals which
means they sleep during the day.
Koalas bears move around just after
sunset spending most of the day
asleep in their tree.
They sleep 75% of the time.
Koalas communicate with each other
by making weird barking noises and
mothers and babies make clicking
noises.
Behavioral Adaptations
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Koalas are loners, they
don’t have to share food.
They sleep a lot and that
helps them save their
energy
They do not drink a lot
because the dew on the
leaves is their water.
Koalas communicate by
making lots of noises that
only they understand.
Physiological
Adaptations
Koalas have a special digestive
stomach which helps them take
away the poisons in the leaves
They can get kidney disease and
pneumonia.
The big nose of the koala helps it
decide what to eat, they have a
very good sense of smell.
A koala sniffs every leaf before
eating it, to be sure it smells
exactly right.
Fun Facts
• A koala is NOT a bear.
• Unlike other marsupials that live
in trees koalas, don’t have nests.
They wrap themselves around
branches in the trees.
• Koalas may look lazy, but when it
comes to food they have lots of
energy. They may climb more
than 150 feet to get to the leaves
to eat.
• Fossil remains of koala-like
animals have been found and are
about 25-40 million years old.
• Baby Koalas eat from their
mother’s butt.