Koala Earrings in 925 Silver

While koalas are often called “Koala Bear,” they are not, in fact, bears. Koalas are a type of animal called a Marsupial. Marsupials are “pouched mammals,” meaning they are born and immediately go to their parent’s pouch. Here, they attach themselves to their mother’s nipple to drink milk until they grow strong enough to open their eyes and explore outside the pouch. Newborn koalas, otherwise known as joeys, are incredibly small, around the size of a jellybean. It takes lots of time and nutritious milk for them to develop: approximately 6 months! Kangaroos and wallabies are in the same marsupial family.

So, the next time you overhear someone call a koala “koala bear,” you can politely tell them all about marsupials. There are two different kinds of koalas Did you know there are TWO different kinds of koalas? They are different subspecies, the northern koala and the southern koala. These animals aren’t completely different, but rather have different characteristics resulting from being found in different places in the country. They look only slightly different from each other – the southern counterpart is a little shaggier and brown-looking. Koalas are endemic animals to Australia, meaning they’re found nowhere else in the world. Specifically, they live in the Eastern and Southeastern parts of the continent. This limited distribution also means they are greatly impacted by things that happen in their environment. Simply, there just isn’t anywhere else for them to go as easily if their home gets destroyed. Koalas are incredibly unique in that they rely solely on eucalyptus trees for their habitat, including both where they live and what they eat.

These marsupials spend nearly 23 hours out of the day sleeping in the crooks of eucalyptus tree branches! Eucalyptus is very high in toxins, and koalas have adapted to be able to eat and digest these leaves well. However, the toxins make them very sleepy, hence why they spend so much time sleeping during the day.