THE KOALA - AUSTRALIA
Koalas are not bears. They are
tree-climbing animals (they are marsupials like kangaroos). One can find them
only in Australia and on the East coast mainly. Following a selective
adaptation, the koala eats eucalyptus. Firs stop other plants from growing
because of their needles which make the ground tart when falling. Similarly,
eucalyptus stops other plants from growing and is uneatable by other animals.
The herbivorous, having nothing more to eat, have to go, followed by their predators.
The koalas, being the only ones to eat eucalyptus, do not have any predator
–which permitted them to survive till this day.
Baby koalas can not digest
eucalyptus. It is the mother who will transmit the necessary bacterium to
digest the plant, during the first year of his life. Koalas are very delicate.
They eat only specific species of eucalyptus. They are numbered between 50.000
and 100.000. Eucalyptus does not put to sleep koalas. The koala can live twelve
years (some people think koalas can live up to 18 or 20 years). The Latin
scientific name of the koala is: Phascolarctos Cinereus –which means grey bear
with a pouch (when this name was given, one did not know what a marsupial was.)
It is often heard that in
Aboriginal, “koala” means: “the one who doesn't drink”, which is totally wrong.
The origin of the word “koala” is unknown. There are numerous assumptions.
Aborigines gave the koalas many names. Their height is approximately 78 cm for
the males and 72 cm for the females. In the south of Australia, male koalas
weight around 11,8 kg and female koalas around 7,9 kg. Whereas in the north of
Australia where there is another species of koalas, they are smaller (6,5 kg
for the males and 5,1 kg for the females) and their colour tend from grey to
brown with white spots.
Create by:
1. Izqi Rahayu Putri
2. Nanda Alya Dinar
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