Koalas

Koalas are the most famous animals in Australia – probably because they look like large teddy bears. They belong to a group of animals known as marsupials. They live in a type of tree known as eucalyptus trees, since koalas can only eat the leaves of these trees. These leaves do not provide much energy, so koalas sleep for up to 20 hours a day. There, very high up, they live alone, quietly and slowly watching the world.

Koalas were once hunted as food (by the first black people of Australia), then for their fur (by the white people, who arrived later), but now koalas are protected. Being so high up in trees, they have a fair safe life – although they easily die in bushfires (since they cannot move very fast from a tree). Sometimes they fall from trees, but this is mostly the younger koalas, or when two male koalas fight. In these modern times, pet dogs sometimes catch and kill them, but the biggest problem now is that many of the eucalyptus forests are being destroyed to give land for houses and farms.

Koalas might seem to have easy lives, but they only live about 15 years in the wild, and do not die comfortably. As the koala gets older, its teeth begin to wear down (from chewing all those tough eucalyptus leaves). Eventually the older koalas can’t chew at all, and they die because they can no longer eat – that is, die of starvation, which is certainly not the nicest way to end your life, right?

Question Time

What group of animals does the koala belong to? ………………………………………

Why do koalas sleep so much? …………………………………………………….……..

Why did the white people in Australia kill koalas? ……………………………..….……

What is the biggest problem for koalas now? …………………………………….…….

What eventually kills most koalas? ………………………………………………………

Word-Learning Time

Do you know the meaning of the underlined words?

Energy

To hunt

Fur     

Modern

To wear down

To chew        

Starvation

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