Koala Kare

Hi! My name is Kayla, and I have recently become very interested in koalas. I’ve done some research and I would like to look into trying to earn some money to help them. In the future, I would like if possible, to get together a small organization that donates money to koalas. I will have to do a lot more research before anything like this can even begin to happen, but if it did, I’d like to call it “Koala Kare”. Let me tell you a bit more about koalas……….

 
Koalas:
Well, everyone knows that koalas eat eucalyptus. Some other things I’ve found out about them are that they aren’t really bears. They are marsupials. Marsupials are animals that carry their babies in their pouches. Other animals that are under this category are kangaroos, wombats, opossums, and wallabies. Most people know what a kangaroo is. A wallaby looks like a small kangaroo. A wombat looks like a squirrel, only it has somewhat of a pushed in nose. Earlier I said that koalas eat eucalyptus. Some other facts about koalas eating are that they have eight teeth for cutting, two for ripping leaves off trees, and twenty for chewing and grinding leaves and bark. They also eat soil, which provides minerals that koalas do not get from leaves. Koalas almost never drink; because eucalyptus leaves provide almost all the water they need.

What’s Happening to Them:
The koala’s enemies are the dingo, owls, and some lizards that might attack a cub. “Humans are the koala’s worst enemy” as my favorite koala book quotes. In the twentieth century, koalas were hunted for fur. In 1924 two million skins were exported. Koalas are now protected in Australia. They are not endangered anymore. But their habitat is still threatened and being destroyed. The forests are being cut down. Many zoos are breeding koalas and trying to help them.

By Kayla, Age 10, Clayton, California