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The Koala

The Koala. The Koala’s scientific name is Phascolarctos cinereus, which means ‘ash-colored pouched bear’. Toby Walters 7F Mrs Love. Classification. TAXONOMY

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The Koala

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  1. The Koala The Koala’s scientific name is Phascolarctos cinereus, which means ‘ash-colored pouched bear’. Toby Walters 7F Mrs Love

  2. Classification TAXONOMY • Kingdom: AnimalPhylum: VertebrataClass: MammaliaOrder: DiprotodantFamily: PhascolarctidaeGenus: Phascolarctos CinereusSpecies: Cinereus

  3. Description • The koala is a stout, tailless, bearlike animal with large tufted ears, bulbous nose, with the thumb and forefinger opposable to other three digits. • Its fur is thick and woolly, generally gray, with a whitish belly.

  4. How is it a vertebrate? • A vertebrate is an animal with a backbone and an invertebrate has no back bone, usually it has an exoskeleton. The classification of Vertebrates is comprised of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, rays and sharks, Marsupials, bony fish and cyclostomes. All other animals, sea creatures and insects are invertebrates. To qualify as a vertebrate it must also have an internal skeleton, a head, central nervous system/brain, and a neural tube. • To investigate how the koala is a vertebrate is simply by the it’s classification (Taxonomy).

  5. Koala Features Climbing Trees • When approaching a tree to climb, koalas spring from the ground and  catch their front claws in the bark, then bound upwards. Claw marks are usually on the trunks of the trees. On hot days it is in effort to keep cool they eat the eucalyptus leaves and lie still for most of the time. In colder times they curled up in a ball to conserve body heat. • Due to their arboreal lifestyle, koalas must be excellent climbers. The paws of the koala have adapted and specialized to facilitate locomotion through the trees. Koalas have two digits on their front paws that function as thumbs and are opposable to the other three digits. This adaptation allows them to maintain an excellent grip while climbing or eating. The hind paw has an opposable digit as well. The koala's paws are also equipped with long claws and rough pads that are well adapt for climbing. Koalas Paws

  6. Koalas Diet • Koalas are very fussy eaters! Their diet consists of leaves from eucalyptus trees. Eucalyptus leaves are very fibrous and low in nutrition. Koalas are the only mammal that can survive on eucalyptus trees. To most animals eucalyptus leaves are very poisonous! Sometimes koalas will eat from other trees such as wattle, tea tree or paper bark. They also eat gum leaves. Gum leaves contain a lot of water, so koalas don't have to drink. They eat about 200 to 500 grams of food per day. Koala Lifecycle • A new born koala, or Joey, is tiny and helpless. It weighs just half a gram and is smaller than your thumb. About 35 days after mating, a tiny baby called a Joey is born. It is about 2 cm long, weighs less than 1 gram and is pink, hairless, blind and without ears. Amazingly, this tiny creature travels up its mother's belly and finds the entrance to the pouch.

  7. Inside the pouch, it attaches itself to a teat that immediately swells inside its mouth so that the Joey cannot let go and lose the teat. The female is able to tighten muscles at the opening of the pouch to prevent the baby falling out. For the next few months the Joey stays inside its mother's pouch, feeding on her milk. The Pouch entrance remains closed. The female carries her baby in the pouch for 6 or 7 months after it is born. The baby, called a Joey, feeds on its mother's milk inside the pouch. Between 22 and 30 weeks of age, its mother starts feeding the Joey a substance called pap formed from pre-digested food and her droppings. This is important, because it trains the Joey to be able to eat eucalyptus, which is poisonous to most mammals. After it leaves the pouch, the baby travels around on its mother's back, but continues to drink milk until a year old. Generally this is when a young one leaves its mother, but if she does not breed then the young one stays longer. • Koalas are mostly nocturnal. They spend up to 20 hours a day sleeping or resting in trees, curled up gripping the limbs with their feet. When they move around, they can leap from tree to tree. Koalas Sleeping

  8. Habitat • 'Habitat' refers to the types of bush land that koalas like to live in. They are found in a range of habitats, from coastal islands and tall eucalypt forests to low woodlands inland. • Koalas live in societies, just like humans, so they need to be able to come into contact with other koalas. It is because of this they need to have areas of suitable eucalypt forest which are large enough to support a healthy koala population and to allow for expansion by maturing young koalas. Koalas are highly territorial and in stable breeding groups, individual members of koala society maintain their own "home range" areas.

  9. Conservation Status • The Australian Government currently lists the koala as a priority species for conservation status assessment. • The Australian Koala Foundation estimates there are around 100,000 koalas left in the wild. • The Koalas are listed as “Least concern”. The Australian Government does not consider the species to be threatened, although the US Government has declared the koala a threatened species. • The koala was hunted almost to extinction in the early 20th century, largely for its fur.

  10. Millions of furs were traded to Europe and the United States, and the population has not fully recovered from such decimations.

  11. Why I chose the Koala?? • I chose the koala because I like the features it has. I also chose the koala because it’s conservation status is “Vulnerable” we need to take good care of these creatures or they will die out in about 50 years.

  12. What I Learnt? • From this topic I have learnt the Koalas Taxonomy which was very interesting, The Features off this animal, and the Conservation status of this animal.

  13. Bibliography • https://www.savethekoala.com/koalastaxonomy.html • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koala • http://www.thekoala.com/koala/ • http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/koalas.htm • http://www.americazoo.com/goto/index/mammals/21.htm • http://library.thinkquest.org/6322/diet.html • http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_life_cycle_of_the_koalas • http://www.planetozkids.com/oban/animals/facts-koala.htm • http://www.bio.davidson.edu/Courses/anphys/2000/CrawfordC/morphology.htm • http://teachit.acreekps.vic.edu.au/animals/koala.htm

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