The koala,
is a marsupial, found from Queensland to Victoria, Australia. It
lives in eucalyptus and other trees, and feeds on their foliage.
Superficially it resembles a small
bear, having a wide head and a thickset body, and weighs about 9 kg
(20 pounds). Like all marsupials, it has a brood-pouch with a pair
of teats; a single young is born about thirty-five days after
mating, and it makes its way into the pouch immediately after birth.
Not until it is four to five
months of age will it venture out of the pouch to travel on its
mother's back, returning to the pouch at intervals until it is six
months old. It may live for up to twenty years.
Considered an endangered species,
it is today increasing in numbers, saved by an active programme of
conservation.
