By: Michael Nguyen 7A

What group are koalas in?  Kingdom: Animalia  Phylum: Chordata  Class: Mammalia  Order: Diprotodontia  Family: Phascolarctidae  Genus: Phascolarctos  Species: Phascolarctos cinereus

What are they?  Koalas(Phascolarctos cinereus) are a animal that has a pouch and is grey. Male koalas are mainly larger than the female. They are about 2.5kg when they are 12 months and when they are adults they weigh from 4kg to 15kg. It can live over 20 years and when born they are 0kg as they are so small. Adult koala

Habitat  The koala lives in the eastern and southern coastal regions.  Sadly people are destroying koala’s habitats so they are now dropping in numbers but there unknown numbers but they are far from being extinct.  In the picture here the red part is where the koalas are found in Australia.

How they have adapted to the environment they live in?  The koala is a animal that has adapted in its eastern and coastal areas to survive. They have 2 fewer limbs which a normal animal would have 13. The koala also has a thick tail for griping on trees for less falling of trees.  The koalas rarely drink water so their water comes from the leaves of eucalyptus trees.  Their fur is water proof and also protects them from hot and cold weather.

How they have adapted eating eucalyptus leaves?  Koala has adapted eating these poisonous leaves by when they are young they eat their mothers poo so they can adapt to eating eucalyptus leaves in he future when they are older so they can survive.  The koala mothers poo have the bacteria to eat eucalyptus in the future so they can survive eating those poisonous eucalyptus leaves.  The picture here is showing a koala eating.

Facts  Koalas can only eat 50 types of eucalyptus trees out of the over 700 eucalyptus trees.  Koalas sleep for about 75% of the day which is 18hrs to 20hrs.  They eat till they full and then go do their business.  Koalas do not drink much water as they get the moisture from leaves they eat. WHAAAA!

Bibliography  ds.html ds.html  koalas-facts.html koalas-facts.html  undt_meli/classification.htm undt_meli/classification.htm

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