A koala takes it easy in a eucalyptus tree 🐨 The round fluffy ears and the big leathery nose are what make a koala a koala. Grey and soft brown are the usual choice, though any colour works. The ears are the part worth slowing down for — leave the inside pale and the fur around it reads as fluffy.
Eucalyptus leaves are tough, low in energy and loaded with oils and other compounds that would make most animals ill. A koala copes in two ways: an unusually long caecum full of microbes that break the leaves down, and a liver that is very good at clearing the toxins out. Very few other animals manage the same diet — the greater glider and some ringtail possums are among the handful that do.
Where do koalas live?
In the wild, koalas are found only in eastern and south-eastern Australia — Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia — in forests where their eucalyptus species grow. They rest or sleep as much as 18 to 22 hours a day, which is roughly what a diet that poor will pay for. And despite the old nickname, a koala is not a bear: it is a marsupial, and a newborn spends its first months in its mother’s pouch.
