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Koolewong

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Koolewong is one of the aboriginal names for a Koala Bear. Saw this adorable one at the Kuranda Koala Gardens, Queensland, Australia. We got to hold one and its fur was quite soft.

Three of their five active hours of the day are spent eating eucalyptus leaves. This sounds like a boring diet, but there are over 600 varieties of eucalyptus leaves and, from a koala's point of view, each looks and tastes very different. They have a really low metabolism due to their diet, and they sit motionless for about 19 hours a day, most of this time spent sleeping.

The koala was almost hunted to extinction in the early 20th century for its fur. In fact, from 1919 to 1924 eight million koalas were killed. It is estimated that there are 100,000 in Australia now, but their biggest threat these days is loss of habitat. Australia has one of the highest land clearing rates in the world, and 80% of the koala habitat has already disappeared.
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© 2007 - 2024 acutely
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klomp123's avatar
Awww :aww: Such a great expression. He's all like "You woke me up!" :D Priceless!