The koala, sometimes called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the wombats. The koala is found in coastal areas of the mainland’s eastern and southern regions, inhabiting Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It is easily recognisable by its stout, tailless body and large head with round, fluffy ears and large, dark nose. The koala has a body length of 60–85 cm and weighs 4–15 kg. Fur colour ranges from silver grey to chocolate brown. Koalas from the northern populations are typically smaller and lighter in colour than their counterparts further south. These populations possibly are separate subspecies, but this is disputed.

It should be noted that the purple part of the map, is an introduced area of the Koala population – this is not a native part of their range.

Koalas typically inhabit open Eucalyptus woodland, as the leaves of these trees make up most of their diet, however like the giant panda the eucalypt diet has low nutritional and caloric content and contains toxic compounds that deter most other mammals from feeding on it, making it hard to get much nutrients from it. Koalas are largely sedentary and sleep up to twenty hours a day. They are asocial animals, and bonding exists only between mothers and dependent offspring. Adult males communicate with loud bellows that intimidate rivals and attract mates. Males mark their presence with secretions from scent glands located on their chests. Being marsupials, koalas give birth to underdeveloped young that crawl into their mothers’ pouches, where they stay for the first six to seven months of their lives. These young koalas, known as joeys, are fully weaned around a year old. Koalas have few natural predators and parasites, but are threatened by various pathogens, such as Chlamydiaceae bacteria and koala retrovirus.

Family Vombatidae from which the Koala comes, contains only one other species – the wombat (though there are many closely related species that are known only from fossils; including marsupial tapirs, marsupial lions and giant wombats). The sister clade, contains kangaroos, wallabies and possums. Having said this (in terms of closely related animals) closely related, is a relative term, as Koalas are thought to have branched off as much as 40 million years ago. In primate terms, 40 million years ago, it is thought that the ancestors of the great apes were either lemur like species or bushbaby type species – showing how distant these (so called) closest relatives actually are.

From around 33 million years to around 5 million years ago, this area where they now live was far wetter, supporting rainforest. This means that the ancestors of the Koala are likely to have had far more interesting and varied diets. Their vocal structure and hearing structure, suggest that at some point in the past, they might have communicated over long distances – not something that they do anymore.

Below, you will find a list of all articles that have (or will be) written on this species. Below that, you will find a video on the species, and below that, we will include any links that we have which might help you see these in the wild.