By David Brown
If you ever wanted a lifestyle where you do almost nothing but eat and sleep, learn from koalas. Why do koalas sleep all day? We explore why koalas do what they do.
1. Koalas eat a lot of leaves and then sleep a lot
Koalas eat leaves, mainly from eucalyptus trees. Because leaves are not high in energy, koalas must eat a lot — about 5-10% of their body weight daily. Koalas compensate for their low-energy diet by sleeping 20 hours a day. When they aren’t sleeping, they’re eating to give themselves enough energy to stay awake long enough to eat. Wait, what?
2. Koalas spend almost all their time in trees
Koalas are adapted for an arboreal (tree-living) lifestyle. When they are not in trees, they are usually moving between trees. Koalas eat, sleep, have babies, raise babies, poop, and do all their other koala things in trees.
3. Koalas look cuddly, but their claws are sharp
On their soft koala paws, koalas have very sharp, curved claws for climbing in, on and around trees. Koalas have 18 sharp claws (five on each paw, and four on each foot — no claws on their big toes).
4. Eucalyptus trees are a koala’s favorite home
You’ll find a lot of eucalyptus trees (also called gum trees) in Australia, and in parts of eastern and southern Australia you will find koalas in those trees. For a koala, living in a eucalyptus tree is like living in an all-you-can-eat restaurant.
Koalas are quite picky about what kind of restaurants they go to, though. There are over 600 species of eucalyptus trees, but koalas will only eat about 30 of them. Koala scientists don’t know why koalas are such picky eaters. Maybe some eucalyptus leaves are not nutritious enough for koalas to bother eating. Or maybe some are not tasty enough. Some may even contain toxins.
5. Calling koalas ‘koala bears’ is unbearable
Koalas are marsupials. Marsupials are mammals where the female has a pouch for her young. Bears are carnivores, and not closely related to koalas.
6. Adult koalas mostly live alone
Adult male and female koalas usually live apart from each other in different trees, only coming together during mating season. A baby koala (called a joey) will spend two or three years close to its mom before going out to find its own tree.
7. Koalas seem like they’re quiet — until they are not
Male koalas have loud, croaking bellows that sound like burps. These calls echo through the forest, telling female koalas a male is around and warning other males to stay away. Female koalas can also bellow, but more quietly than the belching bellows of males. Baby koalas squeak.
8. Koalas are world-class cute, but they were almost hunted to extinction
From the 1800s through the early 1900s, millions of koalas were hunted for their fur. Koala fur was turned into coats and gloves. Fortunately, they are fully protected from hunting now.
9. No more hunting — but koalas are still in danger
The eucalyptus forests that koalas live in are sometimes cut down for timber or to make way for human houses and crops. Wildfires have burned across large parts of koala habitat and injured or killed many koalas.
10. Don’t hug koalas!
One way people can help koalas is by leaving them alone. Koalas are cute with their big fluffy ears and button noses. They look like stuffed toys you might want to hug.
It was once popular in some zoos for people to have their pictures taken holding koalas. This is now illegal in many zoos, because holding koalas can stress them out. Also, don’t forget that koala paws have koala claws, and they aren’t afraid to use them when stressed or threatened.
Not hugging or touching koalas, but awwwwwing at them from a respectful distance is one real way you can help protect koalas.
