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Today I bring you an animal that has been symbolized by other cultures, its tender, and docile appearance has given it much popularity as one of the most tranquil and relaxed animals in the world. I'm talking about the popular Koala, join me to learn a little about the main characteristics of this incredible marsupial.
The koalas are endemic to the Australian continent, belong to the group of marsupials that abound in different forms in Australia, their size is reduced with a maximum length of 3 feet and a really low weight, are very light weighing between 10 and 30 pounds, there is a clear dimorphism between males and strands being the latter a smaller size than the male.
Many people believe that the Koalas are families of bears, but bears should never be confused with marsupials, although they resemble in their form koalas have many more hairs on their body and have great agility to climb trees where they spend much of their lives.
Due to their diet they are basically vegetables, these animals can sleep for long periods about 18 hours to be more exact, the remaining time is used for eating and grooming, being marsupials have a specialized bag to keep their offspring during the first months of life, so if you see a female koala is likely to have a baby, but you will not find out until about 6 months.
The bags that the marsupials have to allow them not only to keep the newborn alive but it also provides the necessary nutrients to continue developing, as they are born without hair, eyes closed and no ability to move.
There is a very cruel story behind the koalas, in the last century unconscious people killed approximately 2 million koalas to remove their skin, is now a species protected by Australian law and is estimated to have a population of 80,000 koalas, although there is a large number in zoos around the world.
The koala tends to suffer from different diseases this makes it a very fragile species, and consequently has decreased much more its population, preventing reproductive functions, vision loss, or lung problems, according to calculations by Australian scientists the current population of koalas could last about 30 years before becoming completely extinct, interaction with humans, climate change and pollution of their habitat continue to put at risk the survival of this species.
The word koala was put by the Australian aborigines and means feeding, the aborigines gave it this name due to the long periods in which it eats without stopping, about 5 hours eating, they are all gluttons.
Their main diet is based on the intake of eucalyptus, they do not need to drink water as they extract the nutrients from the leaves of the eucalyptus tree.
The koalas in their natural state and in good physical condition can reach an average life of 10 years, but it is only if these conditions occur, the rest only live 2 years to 5 years when much product of their habitat intervened or contaminated in captivity is known a case of a koala that lived until 23 years her name was Sarah and became one of the attractions of the Lone Pine Sanctuary in Queensland.
According to studies made to the species have 3 subspecies Phascolarctos cinereus adustus north of Queensland, Cinereus cinereus Phascolarctos New South Wales and Phascolarctos cinereus winner of Victoria is differentiated by the climatic conditions in which they live, those living in temperate areas tend to have more coat and those living in warmer areas have less coat.
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