Koalas Research Paper

Words: 804
Pages: 4

“Though often called the koala "bear," this cuddly animal is not a bear at all; it is a marsupial, or pouched mammal.” This is interesting because the koala has the similarities of a bear other than the pouch on it’s stomach. In the next paragraphs you will get to read all about koalas and how they eat, sleep, where they live and much much more. The koala is an interesting animal because of where it lives, where it survives and how it has been impacted by humans.

Koalas live in eastern Australia. They are native to the land but are illegal to keep as pets. When early European settlers first saw koalas they thought they were bears or monkeys. Today some people still refer to koalas as “koala bears” but that is an incorrect name because a koala in in fact a marsupial. There were once millions of koalas but in the 20th century they were being killed off mostly because of their fur and almost went extinct. Over 8 million koalas were killed.
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They have special paws and claws to help them stay aloft and not fall. Although koalas spend most of their time high up in a tree you could also find them walking around down on the ground, this happens very rarely though. Eucalyptus tree leaves are poisonous to other animals and koalas have to have special toxins in their body in order to digest the leaves. Koalas get 90% of their water from these leaves and so you will rarely see them drinking water and about the only time you will is when they are ill or need more