Australia is the birthplace of all marsupials. How is koalas living now, one of the representatives of marsupials, when there are fires all around? Difficult, of course. Interesting facts about koalas, their brains, lifestyle and habits.
The news feeds are now overflowing with photos and videos from Australia. The mainland is in fire, and the first to suffer in fires are animals. It is not only koalas that have a hard time, everyone who cannot escape from the fire perishes. However, koalas do not behave quite usually in this situation - koalas hide from the fire in their favorite thickets of eucalyptus. And since the trees are burning, the possibility of death in koalas is much higher than in other animals.
Scientists associate this behavior with the decreased brain volume as a result of evolution, that is, koalas simply cannot figure out that they need to flee, and not sitting on eucalyptus branches. It is very sad when you realize that koalas are such little ridiculous children in gray fur coats who simply do not understand what needs to be done to be saved.
The natural range of koalas is eastern and southern Australia, as well as the coastal regions of the mainland, since these animals need high humidity, because they practically do not drink in the sense that we are used to understanding it. Koala moisture is obtained from eucalyptus leaves and from the dew that forms on them. They choose strictly certain varieties of eucalyptus for food, recognizing them by smell, all other types of wood can bring death to these pseudo-bears.
At the beginning of the 20th century, these cute guys were hunted for their fur, thus most of the population in South Australia was destroyed, then hunting was banned and even protected.
The mistake in the classification is to call them bears. The closest relatives of koalas are wombats. If you look closely at these brothers, you can easily find common features in appearance.
These are marsupials. Their babies are born 30-35 days after conception, newborns weigh only about 5, 5 g. For the first 6 months they do not leave their mother's pouch, feeding on milk, and then for another 6 months they travel, clinging to the thick hair of the parent with their paws. Tellingly, males stay with their mothers sometimes 2 times longer than females.
It is noteworthy that koalas, like primates, have a papillary pattern on their fingertips. And one more feature of the structure of the limbs is the opposed fingers. This gives some absurdity to the gait, but do not forget that koalas spend most of their life in trees and, thanks to this structure of their paws, they can easily move along the branches of trees.
Koalas have no natural enemies; they are occasionally attacked only by feral dogs or dingoes. Koalas can also fight among themselves, especially during the breeding season. Mostly males fight, females are more peaceful, they just bypass each other, such are introverts among mammals.
According to the latest news, fires in most areas have already been extinguished, rescuers are dropping carrots and sweet potatoes for injured animals, and camps have been set up for koalas where they are fed and treated. And from this it is just good at heart, because it is always pleasant when at the end of some difficult film adults come, save from trouble, take crying babies in their arms, soothe, feed and heal all wounds.
