- The word Koala comes from an Aboriginal word meaning “no drink”. It's true they don't drink much. Females get all the moisture they need from the eucalyptus leaves they eat, although males sometimes need to drink a little Water.
- Their Latin name is Phascolarctos cinereus, derived from the Greek words phaskolos "pouch" and arktos "bear" (although they are not Bears, or even distantly related to them. Koalas are marsupials and their nearest relative is the Wombat). The specific name, cinereus, is Latin for "ash coloured".
- Koalas are the only non-primate animal to have fingerprints. Their fingerprints look exactly like human ones. They also have opposable digits, to help them climb trees.
- They're only found in the wild in Australia. They feature in Aboriginal mythology and cave art. One myth state the Koala helped row the boat which brought people to the continent. In another, a koala was killed and its guts used to build a bridge. It lost its tail because the Kangaroo cut its tail off to punish it for being lazy and greedy.
- They're not the sharpest knives in the drawer. A koala's brain weighs just 19.2 g (0.68 oz). It has one of the smallest Brains in proportion to body weight of any mammal. If a koala is presented with a pile of plucked eucalyptus leaves, for example, it can't figure out how to eat them.
- What it doesn't have in brain size, the koala makes up for in gut size. Its caecum is 200 cm (80 in) long and 10 cm (4 in) in diameter—the largest proportionally of any animal. The reason for this is that it's diet is made up of nutritionally poor and toxic eucalyptus leaves. They can retain leaves in their guts for up to 200 hours, where they ferment. This releases more nutrients. They deal with the toxins by producing cytochrome P450, which breaks down the poisons in their livers.
- Because there isn't much in the way of nutrients in their diet, koalas spend most of their time asleep. They sleep up to 20 hours a day and spend most of their waking hours eating.
- They're not very sociable, either. They only spend about 15 minutes a day interacting with each other. Mothers and their offspring remain together only until the mother gets pregnant again, then she will chase her offspring away. Adult males communicate with loud bellows that intimidate rivals and attract mates, and sometimes, they'll fight, but on the whole, fighting is a waste of their limited energy.
- People in Europe had never even heard of a koala before 1789, when the first encounter between a European and a koala was recorded. The first picture of one was drawn by naturalist George Perry in 1810, and the first detailed description of them was written down in 1814 by Robert Brown.
- The koala has a body length of 60–85 cm (24–33 in) and weighs 4–15 kg (9–33 lb). Their lifespan in the wild is 13 to 18 years.
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