Save the Koala

Hi! We are going to talk about the Koala. One of Australia’s most iconic animals, the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is bear-like in appearance with a stout body and large paws, but is in fact a marsupial. The fur is predominantly grey to light brown, being lighter and shorter in the warmer north of its range, where the koala is also smaller.

 The Koala lives in eucalypt forests and woodlands, in cool-temperated to tropical areas. The Koala is well adapted to a life spent mainly in the canopy of trees.

The Koala is primary nocturnal, spending most of its time in the branches of trees where it can feed, rest an gain some protection from ground-dwelling.

The male koala is larger with a broader face than the female. Mature males are further distinguishable from females by a brown gland on the chest that produces scent used to mark trees within their territory. Like other marsupials, the female koala has a pouch with a strong, contracting, ring-shaped muscle around the backwards-facing opening, which prevents the young from falling out. 

Koala numbers reached a low point in the 1930s, when hunting for the fur trade made many local populations extinct, including that in South Australia. Other factors in their decline included land clearing, disease, fire and drought. Whilst the koala population as a whole has recovered somewhat since then, its current conservation status varies across its range 

Found only in Australia, the koala occurs in a band down the eastern and southern coasts and inland areas of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, as well as on islands off Queensland, Victoria and South Australia
The koala is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List ⁽¹⁾. It is also listed as Vulnerable in the southeast Queensland bioregion under the Nature Conservation Act 1992, and classified as Vulnerable under the New South Wales Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. In South Australia, koalas are listed as Rare.