- [Narrator] With fluffy
ears, round heads,
and spoon-shaped noses,
koalas are known for their lovable faces.
But these sleepy, Australian tree dwellers
are full of surprises.
Koalas are not bears, they're marsupials.
Often mislabeled koala bears
because of their teddy
bear-like appearance,
koalas are marsupials,
mammals that give girth
to undeveloped young.
Like most marsupials,
mother koalas have pouches,
where baby koalas, or joeys,
drink their mother's milk
and continue to develop
for around six months.
But unlike most other marsupials,
koala pouches open toward the bottom.
This allows joeys to access
and a consume a substance
their mother secretes,
which aids in the baby koala's digestions.
Koalas have six opposable thumbs.
With sharp pointed claws and rough pads,
koala hands and feet are uniquely
designed to grip branches.
Their front paws have five digits.
Two digits oppose the other
three, like a pair of thumbs.
Their back paws each have one large
clawless opposable digit,
which allows them to grasp
branches with their feet,
freeing their hands to forage.
Koala feet also have built-in combs.
The second and third
toes are fused together
and are used for grooming their wooly fur.
Koalas eat leaves that are
poisonous to many animals.
The koala diet consists almost entirely
of eucalyptus leaves.
Of the roughly 650 species of
eucalypt trees in Australia,
koalas prefer only about 30 of them.
The leathery leaves are very high in fiber
and contain chemicals
toxic to other animals.
To process this specialized diet,
koalas have a close ended
digest organ called a caecum,
which helps digest the leaf
fibers via fermentation.
Koalas sleep up to 22 hours per day.
Because of their low nutrition diets
and sluggish metabolism, koalas
must conserve their energy.
Koalas spend about 10% of their day eating
and about 90% of their time sleeping.
To accommodate so much time
sleeping in tree branches,
koalas have curved spines
and tail-less rears
padded with cartilage and extra thick fur.
Koala habitat is quickly disappearing.
Koalas only live in eastern
and southeastern Australia,
and once numbered in the millions.
Now, wild koala population estimates vary
from 43,000 to around 350,000.
Vast tree clearing due to urbanization,
along with droughts and forest fires,
have drastically reduced koala habitats
since the early 1900s.
These stressors have made
koalas vulnerable to diseases,
as well as dog attacks
and vehicle strikes.
Australia's conservation
plans include designating
and protecting koala habitat,
and funding koala hospitals
and disease research.
These combined efforts are critical
to protect the beloved
koala from extinction.
