The
koala is an arboreal
herbivorousHerbivores are organisms that are anatomically and physiologically adapted to eat plant-based foods. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in...
marsupialMarsupials are an infraclass of mammals, characterized by giving birth to relatively undeveloped young. Close to 70% of the 334 extant species occur in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, with the remaining 100 found in the Americas, primarily in South America, but with thirteen in Central...
native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
PhascolarctidaePhascolarctidae is a family of marsupials of the order Diprotodontia, consisting of only one extant species, the Koala, six well known fossil species, with another 5 less well known fossil species, and 2 fossil species whose taxonomy is debatable but is put in this group...
.
The koala is found in coastal regions of eastern and southern Australia, from
AdelaideAdelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
to the southern part of
Cape York PeninsulaCape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...
. Populations also extend for considerable distances inland in regions with enough moisture to support suitable
woodlandEcologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
s. The koalas of South Australia were largely exterminated during the early part of the 20th century, but the state has since been repopulated with
VictorianVictoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
stock. The koala is not found in
TasmaniaTasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
or Western Australia.
Names
The word
koala comes from the Dharuk
gula. Although the vowel /u/ was originally written in the
English orthographyEnglish orthography is the alphabetic spelling system used by the English language. English orthography, like other alphabetic orthographies, uses a set of habits to represent speech sounds in writing. In most other languages, these habits are regular enough so that they may be called rules...
as "oo" (in spellings such as
coola or
koolah), it was changed to "oa" possibly due to an error. The word is erroneously said to mean "doesn't drink".
The scientific name of the koala's
genusIn biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
,
Phascolarctos, is derived from
GreekGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
phaskolos "pouch" and
arktos "bear". Its
speciesIn biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
name,
cinereus, is
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and means "ash-coloured".
Although the koala is not a bear, English-speaking settlers from the late 18th century first called it
koala bear due to its similarity in appearance to
bearBears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
s. Although taxonomically incorrect, the name
koala bear is still in use today outside Australia – its use is discouraged because of the inaccuracy in the name. Other descriptive English names based on "bear" have included
monkey bear,
native bear, and
tree-bear.
Variation
Although three
subspeciesSubspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
have been described, these are arbitrary selections from a cline and are not generally accepted as valid. Following
Bergmann's RuleBergmann's rule is an ecogeographic principle that states that within a broadly distributed genus, species of larger size are found in colder environments, and species of smaller size are found in warmer regions. Although originally formulated in terms of species within a genus, it has often been...
, individuals from the southern cooler climates are larger.
A typical Victorian koala (formerly
P. cinereus victor) has longer, thicker fur, is a darker, softer grey, often with chocolate-brown highlights on the back and forearms, and has a more prominently light-coloured ventral side and fluffy white ear tufts. Typical and New South Wales koala weights are 12 kg (26.5 lb) for males and 8.5 kg (18.7 lb) for females. In tropical and sub-tropical
QueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, however, the koala is smaller (at around 6.5 kg (14.3 lb) for an average male and just over 5 kg (11 lb) for an average female), a lighter often rather scruffy grey in colour, and has shorter, thinner fur. In Queensland, the koala was previously classified as the subspecies
P. cinereus adustus, and the intermediate forms in
New South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
as
P. cinereus cinereus. A fourth variation, though not technically a subspecies, is the "golden koala", which has a slight golden tinge to the fur as a result of an absence of the melanin pigment that produces
albinismAlbinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes due to absence or defect of an enzyme involved in the production of melanin...
in most other mammalian species. The variation from one form to another is continuous and there are substantial differences between individual koalas in any given region such as hair colour. Koalas may also have white fur in rare cases due to a recessive gene.
The origins of the koala are unclear, although almost certainly they descended from terrestrial
wombatWombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately in length with a short, stubby tail. They are adaptable in their habitat tolerances, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as...
-like animals. Koala
fossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s are quite rare, but some have been found in northern Australia dating to 20 million years ago. During this time, the northern half of Australia was
rainforestRainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
. The koala did not specialise in a diet of
eucalyptEucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera:Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the...
s until the climate cooled and eucalypt forests grew in the place of rainforests. The fossil record indicates that before 50,000 years ago,
giant koalaThe Giant Koala was an arboreal marsupial which existed in Australia during the Pleistocene epoch. Phascolarctos stirtoni was about one third larger than the contemporary Koala, and has had an estimated weight of , which is the same weight as a large contemporary male Koala...
s inhabited the southern regions of Australia. The koala fills the same ecological role as the
slothSloths are the six species of medium-sized mammals belonging to the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae , part of the order Pilosa and therefore related to armadillos and anteaters, which sport a similar set of specialized claws.They are arboreal residents of the jungles of Central and South...
s of South America.
Physical description
The koala is broadly similar in appearance to the
wombatWombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately in length with a short, stubby tail. They are adaptable in their habitat tolerances, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as...
(its closest living relative), but has a thicker coat, much larger ears, and longer limbs. The koala has large, sharp claws to assist with climbing tree trunks. Weight varies from about 14 kg (30.9 lb) for a large southern male, to about 5 kg (11 lb) for a small northern female. The koala's five fingers include two
opposable thumbThe thumb is the first digit of the hand. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position , the thumb is the lateral-most digit...
s, providing better gripping ability. The first two fingers are positioned in apposition on the front paws, and the first three fingers for the hind paws. The koala is one of the few mammals (other than
primateA primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...
s) that has
fingerprintA fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
s. Koala fingerprints are similar to human fingerprints; even with an electron microscope, it can be quite difficult to distinguish between the two.
The teeth of the koala are adapted to their herbivorous diet, and are similar to those of other
diprotodontDiprotodontia is a large order of about 120 marsupial mammals including the kangaroos, wallabies, possums, koala, wombats, and many others. Extinct diprotodonts include the rhinoceros-sized Diprotodon, and Thylacoleo, the so-called "marsupial lion"....
marsupials, such as
kangarooA kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...
s and wombats. They have sharp
incisorIncisors are the first kind of tooth in heterodont mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and mandible below.-Function:...
s to clip leaves at the front of the mouth, separated from the grinding cheek teeth by a wide
diastemaDiastema is a space or gap between two teeth. Many species of mammals have diastemata as a normal feature, most commonly between the incisors and molars.-In humans:...
. The dental formula for koalas is
The male koala, like many marsupials, has a bifurcated
penisThe penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
. The female has two lateral
vaginaThe vagina is a fibromuscular tubular tract leading from the uterus to the exterior of the body in female placental mammals and marsupials, or to the cloaca in female birds, monotremes, and some reptiles. Female insects and other invertebrates also have a vagina, which is the terminal part of the...
s and two separate
uteriThe uterus or womb is a major female hormone-responsive reproductive sex organ of most mammals including humans. One end, the cervix, opens into the vagina, while the other is connected to one or both fallopian tubes, depending on the species...
, which is common to all marsupials.
The brain in the ancestors of the modern koala once filled the whole
cranial cavityThe cranial cavity, or intracranial space, is the space formed inside the skull. The brain occupies the cranial cavity, which is lined by the meninges and which contains cerebrospinal fluid to cushion blows....
, but has become drastically reduced in the present species, a degeneration scientists suspect is an adaptation to a diet low in energy. One of the smallest in marsupials with no more than 0.2% of its body weight, about 40% of the cranial cavity is filled with
cerebrospinal fluidCerebrospinal fluid , Liquor cerebrospinalis, is a clear, colorless, bodily fluid, that occupies the subarachnoid space and the ventricular system around and inside the brain and spinal cord...
, while the brain's two
cerebral hemisphereA cerebral hemisphere is one of the two regions of the eutherian brain that are delineated by the median plane, . The brain can thus be described as being divided into left and right cerebral hemispheres. Each of these hemispheres has an outer layer of grey matter called the cerebral cortex that is...
s are like "a pair of shrivelled
walnutJuglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall , with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts , but not the hickories...
halves on top of the
brain stemIn vertebrate anatomy the brainstem is the posterior part of the brain, adjoining and structurally continuous with the spinal cord. The brain stem provides the main motor and sensory innervation to the face and neck via the cranial nerves...
, in contact neither with each other nor the bones of the
skullThe skull is a bony structure in the head of many animals that supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.The skull is composed of two parts: the cranium and the mandible. A skull without a mandible is only a cranium. Animals that have skulls are called craniates...
. It is the only animal on Earth with such a strangely reduced brain."
It is generally a silent animal, but males have a very loud advertising call that can be heard from almost a kilometre away during the breeding season. Females glean clues regarding a male's suitability as a mate from these calls, showing a preference for larger males. When under stress, koalas may issue a loud cry, which has been reported as similar to that of a human baby. There is little reliable information about the lifespan of the koala, but in captivity they have been observed to reach the age of 18 years.
Life cycle
Females reach maturity at 2 to 3 years of age, males at 3 to 4 years. A healthy female koala can produce one young each year for about 12 years.
GestationGestation is the carrying of an embryo or fetus inside a female viviparous animal. Mammals during pregnancy can have one or more gestations at the same time ....
is 35 days. Twins are very rare; the world's first confirmed identical twin koalas, named "
Euca" and "
Lyptus", were born at the
University of QueenslandThe University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
in April 1999. Mating normally occurs between December and March, the
Southern HemisphereThe Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...
's summer.
A baby koala is referred to as a joey and is hairless, blind, and earless. At birth the joey, only 20 mm (0.78740157480315 in) long, crawls into the downward-facing
pouchThe pouch is a distinguishing feature of female marsupials ; the name marsupial is derived from the Latin marsupium, meaning "pouch". Marsupials give birth to a live but relatively undeveloped fetus called a joey. When the joey is born it crawls from inside the mother to the pouch...
on the mother's belly (which is closed by a
drawstringA drawstring is a string, cord, or rope used to "draw" or tie closed an opening in fabric or other material...
-like muscle that the mother can tighten at will) and attaches itself to one of the two teats.
Young remain hidden in the pouch for about six months, only feeding on milk. During this time they grow ears, eyes, and fur. The joey then begins to explore outside of the pouch. At about this stage it begins to consume small quantities of the mother’s "pap" (formerly thought to be excrement, but now thought to come from the mother's
cecumThe cecum or caecum is a pouch, connecting the ileum with the ascending colon of the large intestine. It is separated from the ileum by the ileocecal valve or Bauhin's valve, and is considered to be the beginning of the large intestine. It is also separated from the colon by the cecocolic...
) in order to inoculate its gut with the microbes necessary to digest eucalypt leaves. The joey will remain with its mother for another six months or so, riding on her back, and feeding on both milk and eucalypt leaves until weaning is complete at about 12 months of age. Young females disperse to nearby areas at that time; young males often stay in the mother's home range until they are two or three years old.
Diet and behaviour
The koala lives almost entirely on
eucalyptEucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera:Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the...
leaves. This is likely to be an evolutionary adaptation that takes advantage of an otherwise unfilled
ecological nicheIn ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem to each other; e.g. a dolphin could potentially be in another ecological niche from one that travels in a different pod if the members of these pods utilize significantly different food...
, since eucalypt leaves are low in
proteinProteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
, high in indigestible substances, and contain phenolic and
terpeneTerpenes are a large and diverse class of organic compounds, produced by a variety of plants, particularly conifers, though also by some insects such as termites or swallowtail butterflies, which emit terpenes from their osmeterium. They are often strong smelling and thus may have had a protective...
compounds that are toxic to most species. Like wombats and
slothSloths are the six species of medium-sized mammals belonging to the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae , part of the order Pilosa and therefore related to armadillos and anteaters, which sport a similar set of specialized claws.They are arboreal residents of the jungles of Central and South...
s, the koala has a very low
metabolic rateMetabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in the cells of living organisms to sustain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories...
for a
mammalMammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
and rests motionless for about 16 to 18 hours a day, sleeping most of that time. Koalas can be aggressive towards each other, throwing a foreleg around their opponent and biting, though most aggressive behaviour is brief squabbles. Handling koalas may cause them stress, and the issue of aggression and stress from handling is a political issue in Australia.
Koalas spend about three of their five active hours eating. Feeding occurs at any time of day, but usually at night. Koalas eat an average of 500 g (17.6 oz) of eucalypt leaves each day, chewing them with powerful jaws to a very fine paste before swallowing. The liver deactivates the toxic components ready for
excretionExcretion is the process by which waste products of metabolism and other non-useful materials are eliminated from an organism. This is primarily carried out by the lungs, kidneys and skin. This is in contrast with secretion, where the substance may have specific tasks after leaving the cell...
, and the hind gut (especially the
cecumThe cecum or caecum is a pouch, connecting the ileum with the ascending colon of the large intestine. It is separated from the ileum by the ileocecal valve or Bauhin's valve, and is considered to be the beginning of the large intestine. It is also separated from the colon by the cecocolic...
) is greatly enlarged to extract the maximum amount of nutrient from the poor quality diet. Much of this is done through bacterial
fermentationFermentation is the process of extracting energy from the oxidation of organic compounds, such as carbohydrates, using an endogenous electron acceptor, which is usually an organic compound. In contrast, respiration is where electrons are donated to an exogenous electron acceptor, such as oxygen,...
: while young are being weaned, the mother passes these essential digestive aids on to her offspring.
The koala will eat the leaves of a wide range of eucalypts, and occasionally even some non-eucalypt species such as
AcaciaAcacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...
,
LeptospermumLeptospermum is a genus of about 80-86 species of plants in the myrtle family Myrtaceae. Most species are endemic to Australia, with the greatest diversity in the south of the continent; but one species extends to New Zealand, another to Malaysia, and L. recurvum is endemic to Malaysia.They...
, and
MelaleucaMelaleuca is a genus of plants in the myrtle family Myrtaceae known for its natural soothing and cleansing properties. There are well over 200 recognised species, most of which are endemic to Australia...
. It has firm preferences for particular varieties of eucalypt and these preferences vary from one region to another: in the south Manna Gum,
Blue GumBlue Gum usually refers to the subspecies or the species in Eucalyptus globulus complex, however it may also refer to a number of other species of Eucalyptus in Australia. Confusingly, in Queensland it usually refers to Eucalyptus tereticornis, which is known elsewhere as Forest Red Gum.* Gippsland...
, and
Swamp GumSwamp Gum may refer to a number of Eucalyptus species:*Eucalyptus bensonii, Mountain Swamp Gum*Eucalyptus camphora, Mountain Swamp Gum*Eucalyptus ovata, Swamp Gum*Eucalyptus regnans, Swamp Gum*Eucalyptus rudis, Swamp Gum...
are favoured; Grey Gum and Tallowwood are important in the north, and the ubiquitous River Red Gum of the isolated seasonal swamps and watercourses that meander across the dry inland plains allows the koala to live in surprisingly
aridA region is said to be arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or even preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life...
areas. Many factors determine which of the 680 species of eucalypt trees the koala eats. Among trees of their favourite species, however, the major factor that determines which individual trees the koala chooses is the concentration of a group of phenolic toxins called formylated phloroglucinol compounds. Researches on koalas by keepers at 13 wildlife parks and zoos in New South Wales show that the most preferred group of
Eucalyptus foliage had the lowest content of condensed tannins.
Conservation status
The Australian government currently lists the koala as a priority species for conservation status assessment. Government estimates of the national koala population numbers in the hundreds of thousands, although other studies have estimated as few as 80,000 koalas left in the wild. The
Australian Koala FoundationThe Australian Koala Foundation is an international not-for-profit scientific organisation that aims to diminish the threats to the survival of koalas and in doing so raise the awareness of the global community to help save endangered fauna and flora...
estimates there are around 100,000 koalas left in the wild.
As with most native Australian animals, the koala cannot legally be kept as a pet in Australia or anywhere else. The only people who are permitted to keep koalas are wildlife carers and, occasionally, research scientists. These individuals are issued with special permits to care for koalas, but have to return them to the wild when they are either well enough or, in the case of joeys, old enough.
The IUCN lists the species as "Least Concern". The
Australian governmentThe Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
does not consider the species to be threatened, although the
US governmentThe federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
has declared the koala a threatened species.
The koala inhabits four Australian states. Under state legislation, the species is listed as:
- Queensland – Common, or "Least Concern Wildlife" throughout the state, except in the South East Queensland bioregion, where it is listed as vulnerable.
- New South Wales – listed at a state scale as vulnerable, but varying regionally from secure to locally extinct.
- South Australia – classified as rare (although the population on Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island is Australia's third-largest island after Tasmania and Melville Island. It is southwest of Adelaide at the entrance of Gulf St Vincent. Its closest point to the mainland is off Cape Jervis, on the tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula in the state of South Australia. The island is long...
is thriving).
- Victoria – The koala population in Victoria was considered large and thriving, according to an article which was last reviewed on 29 October 2007.
The koala was hunted almost to extinction in the early 20th century, largely for its fur. Millions of furs were traded to Europe and the United States, and the population has not fully recovered from such decimations. Extensive cullings occurred in Queensland in 1915, 1917, and again in 1919 when over one million koalas were killed with guns, poisons, and nooses. The public outcry over the cullings was most likely the first wide-scale
environmental issueEnvironmental issues in Australia describes a number of environmental issues which affect the environment of Australia. There are a range of such issues, some of them relating to conservation in Australia while others, for example the deteriorating state of Murray-Darling Basin, have a direct and...
that rallied Australians. Despite the growing movement to protect native species, the poverty brought about by the drought of 1926–28 led to another 600,000 koalas being killed during a one-month
open seasonHunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
in August 1927.
Today,
habitat* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
loss and the impacts of urbanisation (such as dog attacks and traffic accidents) are the leading threats to the survival of the koala. In recent years, some colonies have been hard hit by disease, especially
chlamydiaChlamydia is a genus of bacteria that are obligate intracellular parasites. Chlamydia infections are the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infections in humans and are the leading cause of infectious blindness worldwide....
. The koala requires large areas of healthy, connected forest and will travel long distances along tree corridors in search of new territory and mates. The increasing human population of the coastal parts of the continent continues to cut these corridors by agricultural and residential development, forestry, and road-building, marooning koala colonies in decreasing areas of bush. The long term viability of the koala is therefore threatened by genetic weakness . The
Australian Koala FoundationThe Australian Koala Foundation is an international not-for-profit scientific organisation that aims to diminish the threats to the survival of koalas and in doing so raise the awareness of the global community to help save endangered fauna and flora...
is the principal organisation dedicated to the conservation of the koala and its habitat, mapping 40000 km² (15,444.1 sq mi) of land for koala habitat and claiming strong evidence that wild koala populations are in serious decline throughout the species' natural range. Local councils in growing urban areas with koala populations that have established or are in the process of establishing planning overlays and controls to preserve habitat for koalas include the Victorian councils of
City of BallaratThe City of Ballarat is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia around Ballarat. It is located in the western part of the state. It has an area of 740 square kilometres. In 2001 it had a population of 81,000...
,
Macedon Ranges ShireThe Shire of Macedon Ranges is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central part of the state northwest of Melbourne, the state capital. The shire has an area of 1,747 square kilometres, and the 2006 census reported its population as 38,360...
and
Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management AuthorityThe Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority lies south of the Great Dividing Range, the region contains areas of scenic beauty, magnificent and dramatic coastline, superb national parks and rich biodiversity.-Glenelg Hopkins region:...
as well as the Queensland councils of
Moreton Bay Regional CouncilThe Moreton Bay Region is a Local Government Area located in South East Queensland, Australia, immediately to the north of Brisbane, the state capital...
and Redland Shire Council.
Although the species covers a large area, only 'pieces' of koala habitat remain. Presently, many habitats are lost to weeds, clearance for agriculture, or carved up by developers. Other threats come from logging, poor management, attacks from
feralA feral organism is one that has changed from being domesticated to being wild or untamed. In the case of plants it is a movement from cultivated to uncultivated or controlled to volunteer. The introduction of feral animals or plants to their non-native regions, like any introduced species, may...
and
domesticDomestication or taming is the process whereby a population of animals or plants, through a process of selection, becomes accustomed to human provision and control. In the Convention on Biological Diversity a domesticated species is defined as a 'species in which the evolutionary process has been...
animals, diseases, and roads.
See also
- Fauna of Australia
The fauna of Australia consists of a huge variety of animals; some 83% of mammals, 89% of reptiles, 90% of fish and insects and 93% of amphibians that inhabit the continent are endemic to Australia...
- Koala emblems and popular culture
Koala emblems and popular culture deals with the uses which have been made of the image of the Koala such as coins, emblems, logos, mascots and in the naming of sports teams.-Emblems and logos:...
- List of monotremes and marsupials
External links