Koala Facts
for Kids

No — koalas are marsupials, not bears. They are most closely related to wombats. The misnomer 'koala bear' likely arose from early European settlers who thought the round-eared, furry animal resembled a small bear. Koalas carry their young in a pouch, have a backward-opening pouch (like wombats), and are part of the order Diprotodontia.

Koalas sleep 18–22 hours per day because eucalyptus leaves are extremely low in calories and nutrition. Digesting the tough, fibrous leaves also requires enormous energy — koalas have an unusually long caecum (up to 2 metres) where bacteria slowly ferment the leaves. Sleeping conserves the energy their poor diet cannot provide.

Koalas are classified as Vulnerable nationally in Australia, and Endangered in Queensland, New South Wales, and the ACT. The 2019–2020 Black Summer bushfires killed an estimated 60,000 koalas and destroyed 24% of their habitat. Ongoing threats include land clearing, dog attacks, vehicle strikes, chlamydia disease, and climate change intensifying droughts and fires.

Koalas eat almost exclusively eucalyptus leaves — they are one of the most specialised herbivores on Earth. They select from roughly 30 of the 700+ eucalyptus species, preferring leaves with higher moisture and nutrient content. Eucalyptus leaves contain toxic phenolic compounds and terpenes that would poison most animals, but koalas have evolved specialised liver enzymes to detoxify them.

Koala joeys are born after just 34–36 days of gestation, emerging blind, hairless, and only 2 cm long (about the size of a jellybean). The joey crawls into its mother's backward-facing pouch and attaches to a teat for 6–7 months. Before transitioning to eucalyptus leaves, the joey eats 'pap' — a specialised faecal matter from the mother that inoculates its gut with the bacteria needed to digest toxic eucalyptus.