TPO – An adult Koala bear will have to eat about 1kg of eucalyptus leaves a day to get enough nutrition, and it takes up to 100-200 hours to fully digest. People often consider Koalas to be a lazy animal as they sleep up to 18-22 hours a day.
Worldwide, there is only one country fortunate to have the presence of Koalas, that is Australia, and especially only in the Eastern region of Australia, where there are many eucalyptus forests.
Koalas are not bears, they have pouches like kangaroos so that baby koalas can live in them for up to 7 months, koalas very rarely drink water… There are many things we need to know about this animal, as well as how they lived. 80% of the habitat is lost, mostly because of humans.
Smallest brain among mammals
Although we are all used to calling them Koala bears, it is clear that this animal belongs to the ‘masrupials’ family, which is the same family as Kangaroo, Wallaby and Possum. This means that Koalas also have… pouches, and newly born koala babies will be raised in their mother’s pouch until they are fully developed.
Koala has an average body length of 60-85 cm, weighing about 12-15kg. Koala is one of the rare animals that does not need to drink water, this is an evolution to avoid being hunted by predators in places like rivers and streams.
One of their interesting points is that they possess a very small brain, the ratio of brain size to the animal’s body is only about 2% – the smallest among mammals. Notably, this brain not only has extremely small proportions, it also has an extremely modest weight: It weighs only about 19.2g and only accounts for about 60% of the skull.
Newborn koalas are only 2cm long, but when mature, they can be up to 60 – 85cm long and weigh up to 14kg. Koalas can live up to 20 years if there are no factors that threaten them.
Don’t let their languid, slow appearance fool you. Koalas can actually run as fast as rabbits, but to save energy for digestion, they won’t run if they don’t have to.
Lazy animals, sleeping up to 22 hours a day
An adult Koala bear will have to eat about 1kg of eucalyptus leaves a day to get enough nutrition, and it takes up to 100-200 hours to fully digest. People often consider Koalas to be a lazy animal as they sleep up to 18-22 hours a day.
However, koalas are slow because they have to eat food that is both indigestible and poor in nutrients, they have to move slowly, and sleep a lot to conserve energy and digest the entire meal. There is a truth that newborn Koalas cannot eat eucalyptus leaves, so they have to eat… their mother’s feces in the early stages to survive.
Koalas mainly sleep during the day and wake up at night to feed. However, because their sleep time is so long, from 18-20 hours a day, there is no day or night for them. Koalas will wake up and feed when they have had enough sleep.
Do not drink water
In the Aboriginal language, ‘Koala’ means ‘no drinks’ because they rarely drink water. Many people believe that koalas keep moisture in their bodies from eating leaves.
The only thing that Koalas eat are eucalyptus leaves, also known as eucalyptus trees. Only koalas can digest this type of leaf because their body has a part called ‘cecum’, which helps them digest this type of leaf without any harm.
But in the baby koala’s stomach, the cecum has not yet developed enough to be able to eat eucalyptus leaves. They must stay in the mother’s pouch until the digestive system is complete.
So Koalas sleep a lot because they are “drunk” with eucalyptus leaves? They sleep so much because their diet is poor in energy from eucalyptus leaves. Not to mention that most of the body’s energy has to be used for…digestion, so it’s best to limit movement.
The baby koala will be protected in the mother koala’s pouch for 6 to 7 months. During that time, they only drink milk from their mother, and all the nutrients, as well as special microorganisms from the mother koala’s intestines, will be passed to their babies, helping to perfect their digestive system.
80% of koala habitat has disappeared
In addition to natural disasters such as drought and forest fires, the koala’s habitat has been shrinking due to humanity itself.
Worldwide, there is only one country fortunate to have the presence of Koalas, that is Australia, and especially only in the Eastern region of Australia, where there are many eucalyptus forests. However, we humans cut down more and more trees to build farms or use them for other purposes, making the koala’s habitat increasingly narrow.
Even after the recent forest fire disaster in Australia, the number of Koalas decreased dramatically due to burns, heat shock or loss of habitat. Koalas trembling, hugging tree stumps, waiting for the fire to pass, or rushing into the streets to ask for water from people, are images that make people feel saddened by the consequences of the forest fires in Australia. .
