Koala

The sleepyhead that dozes 20 hours a day

A koala is not a bear — it's a marsupial, a relative of the kangaroo! It lives in eucalyptus trees and eats only their leaves. Those leaves are poisonous to other animals, but food for a koala. The leaves give little energy, so a koala sleeps 20 hours a day. A baby koala rides on its mother's back.

The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is a marsupial of the eucalyptus forests of eastern Australia. It eats only eucalyptus leaves (about 30 of 700 species), which are toxic to other animals — a koala's liver breaks down the toxins. The leaves are low in calories, so a koala sleeps 18–22 hours a day and hardly drinks ('koala' means 'no drink' in an Aboriginal language). Koala fingerprints are so similar to human ones that they're hard to tell apart under a microscope. The 2019–2020 bushfires affected more than 60,000 koalas; in 2022 the koala was officially listed as endangered in eastern Australia.

Fun facts

• Koala fingerprints are so like human ones they could confuse detectives!
• A koala eats 1 kg of leaves a day and hardly ever drinks water.
• A baby koala is called a joey and is 2 cm long at birth — the size of a bee.
• To call each other, koalas make a surprisingly loud 'snoring' bellow.