Amazing Koalas Facts

Koalas are marsupials, related to kangaroos. Most marsupials have pouches where the tiny newborns develop. A koala mother usually gives birth to one joey at a time. A newborn koala is only the size of a jelly bean. Called a joey, the baby is blind, naked, and earless. As soon as it's born, this tiny creature makes its way from the birth canal to its mother's pouch.



Using the two well-developed senses it's born with—smell and touch—along with its strong front legs and claws and an instinct that tells it which direction to head, the baby koala reaches the pouch. There it stays, safely tucked away, growing and developing for about seven months.


After a baby has been in the pouch for about six months, its mother begins to produce a special substance called pap. The joey feeds on this in addition to the milk it's already getting. Pap comes from the mother's intestines and contains bacteria that the joey needs to have in its own intestines so that it can digest an adult diet of eucalyptus leaves.


At about seven months, the joey leaves the pouch to eat leaves, but returns to it to nurse. By the time the joey is about one year old; it stops nursing and eats just leaves.


Koalas have thick woolly fur that protects them from both heat and cold. It also acts like a raincoat. Koalas have thick, greyish fur, with white on their chests, inner arms, and ears. They have large furry ears and leathery noses.


Koalas live in trees, sometimes coming down to the ground to seek shade or another tree. They occasionally jump from one tree to the next.


The word koala may come from an Aboriginal word meaning no drink. Although koalas do drink when necessary, they obtain most of the moisture they need from leaves.


A female koala is pregnant for only 35 days before giving birth; most of the joey's growth and development takes place in the mother's pouch.


Koalas spend as many as 18 hours a day napping and resting.


Koalas smell like cough drops because of their diet of eucalyptus trees.


Koalas in the cooler southern areas of Australia are bigger and have thicker fur than their northern relatives. Female koalas are smaller than males. Southern koalas weigh between 20 and 30 pounds and northern koalas weigh between 13 and 16 pounds.