Koalas belong to the class of mammals, furry, warm-blooded vertebrates, most of which give birth and feed their young with milk produced by the glands in the skin of females. The mammal class has three subclasses: Prototeriaegg-laying mammals represented by platypuses and echidnas; metatheria, pouched mammals represented by marsupials and their distant relatives known only from fossils; Y eutheria, placental mammals such as humans. Of these three subclasses, koalas are marsupials and belong to Metatheria. marsupials they are unique among mammals in their mode of reproduction: their gestation period is very short, so the young are born underdeveloped, and after birth they remain for many weeks in the maternal pouch and continue to develop. Except for the North American opossum, marsupials are found only in Australia and South America.
koalas are sugar gliders, a genus of marsupials whose limbs are small to average in size and all limbs have five clawed digits except the clawless toes; sugar gliders are arboreal and feed on vegetation. Finally, koalas are the largest sugar gliders and the only ones with pouches that open at the rear. Medium-sized animals with dense fur and no tail, koalas have a low metabolism and spend most of their waking time consuming their exclusive diet, eucalyptus tree leaves. Koalas have certain location-dependent preferences in eucalyptus species, of which they typically have around five favourites; Interestingly, koalas love the mature leaves of manna eucalyptus, but should avoid its young leaves and shoots which contain dangerously high levels of hydrocyanic acid and can kill animals that feed on them. Koalas get the water they need from leaves, so they rarely drink; in fact, “koala” is commonly said to mean “doesn’t drink” in the native language of Aboriginal Australians. Slow and defenseless, koalas have long been mercilessly killed as much for entertainment as for their beautiful, soft fur, until Australia enacted laws to protect koalas and other countries, like the United States, banned the importation of koala skins. .
Due to their bear-like appearance (chubby, tailless, rounded ears, thick fur), koalas are often incorrectly referred to as “koala bears”; including its scientific name, Phascolarctos cinereus, means “ash gray bag bear”. But koalas are not bears; the two families of animals belong to different classes of mammals; as described above, koalas belong to Metatheria, while bears are Eutherians. The two animals differ in many ways, and to name a few we will briefly consider reproduction, diet, and habitat. Unlike koalas, bears are placental mammals, which means that their young do not need a pouch to finish the gestation period. When it comes to eating habits, many bears are carnivorous, which is a far cry from vegan koalas. Finally, while koalas primarily reside in the southern hemisphere, most bears, with the exception of the South American Andean bear, live in the northern hemisphere.