Written by Barney Goodright (Class 5)
Koalas live mainly in Oceania. They are most common in south-east Australia and are slightly smaller the more northern they live. This is because they need more body fat to keep warm if they live in the south. Though this is all true, all marsupials originated from east china.
As well as having an interesting habitat, Koalas have a peculiar diet and are very picky eaters. They only eat the leaves of a eucalyptus tree, oddly these are poisonous to humans. Though it may seem like it's a superpower to eat poison, digesting it is hard work and so they are always very tired. Did you know they only eat ten of the nearly nine- hundred species of eucalyptus?
In 2020,their eating habits were affected for the worst when there was an ongoing drought and a terrible heat wave causing cleadly bushfire. This lasted over 79 days. It also devastated the koala population going from 82,000 in 2018 to only 32,000 in 2021.
So how exactly can we save this lovely species after the 2020 disaster? Unless you live in Australia, you can't help directly, but can do fund-raising to earn money, so that you can donate it to koala sanctuaries. If you do, then just being careful when driving or planting trees can help lots.
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