The Koala is Australia's most popular animal, its cute and looks cuddly.
In the wild they are quite ferocious, they will scratch and bite.
The Koala is often called a koala bear, this is not correct.
It's not a bear at all, its a marsupial,which means it has a pouch for rearing its young.
Baby koalas are called joeys and are very small when born, about the size of a jelly bean, and pink in colour.
They spend the first 6 months in the mother's pouch feeding on her milk.
When they come out of the pouch they start to nibble gum leaves, and ride on mum's back.
They care for themselves when they are about a year old.



Koalas can't see very well and rely on their sense of smell and hearing.
They are excellent climbers, can also swim and run quite fast when on the ground, they prefer to spend most of the time in gum trees.
They are nocturnal and very hard to see sleeping up a tall gum tree during the day.
They live on gum leaves but only a few varieties, which has created problems for them.
Urban development means fewer trees, and the animals often get killed by dogs and cars.
They are territorial marking their space with their smell, the males are larger than the females.
Early settlers killed many for their fur until they were almost gone forever, they are now of course protected.