Koalas

1. Koalas By Ben Griffiths

2. Koala Structural Adaptations • One structural adaptation of the koala is it’s long gut. This is important because it help them get rid of poison in their food. • A second adaptation is a pouch. This is important because this protects its young and lets them finish developing. • A third adaptation is their thick fur. This is important because it keeps them warm. • A fourth adaptation is its muscular legs. This is important because it lets the koala climb trees to stay away from predators. • A fifth adaptation is the Northern koala’s fur. This is important because it camouflages them with the trees to hide them from predators.

3. Koala Behavioral Adaptations • An important behavior for the koala is it is nocturnal. This is important because the koala has thick fur, and it isn’t exactly cool in Australia so they are only awake at night when it is cooler. • Another important behavior is that they are picky eaters. This is important because it lets them eat a lot. This work because koalas only eat eucalyptus leaves because they are one of the only animals who can eat them. They do this because this way there is no competition. • Another important behavior is they sleep 18 to 2O hours a day, and move really slowly. Since eucalyptus leaves don’t provide much nutrients , and are difficult to digest, the koala sleeps so much and moves so slowly to conserve energy and spend it on digesting. • A fourth behavior is how a baby koala climbs into their mom’s pouch. They do this because koalas are marsupials, and their babies are born very early. (Before they are fully developed.) They climb into the pouch to be protected while it finishes developing. It still needs to grow fur and even ears before they are ready to start riding on its mom’s back instead.

4. The Koalas Habitat • The koala lives in forests and woodlands. • It lives in all parts of Australia. • Koalas use trees to stay up and away from predators. • Koalas need eucalyptus leaves in trees so it can have food out of predators reach.

5. Koalas Diet. • The koala is a herbivore that only eats eucalyptus leaves. • Koalas are picky eaters. They eat eucalyptus leaves because it is one of the only animals who can eat them, so their is no competition. • Even though the koala can eat the food, it has to sniff each leave because the young leaves can still poison them.

6. Koala Food Chain Sun Trees Koala Dingo

7. Resources • I used a book called Koalas by Jen Green • Then I used http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/koala/