I love animals - Reading, videos and a story with questions for small kids - Part 32 Koala

Look at that face - it is like the teddy bear on your bed came alive.  These animals are just too cute for words.  Lets find out more about them.

Even tho some people call them koala bears and they sure look like one, a koala is not a bear.

Bears are omnivorous, placental mammals. Koalas are eucalyptus-eating marsupials. Generally speaking, bears are much larger than koalas and bear species can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Wild Koalas can only be found in Australia. 

A 'placental mammal' gives birth to their live young and the baby is connected with an umbilical cord to the placenta, like a human baby. Where you see your belly button, that is where you were connected to your mum. The Koala is a 'marsupial', which mean the baby is born when it is not yet fully developed and then stays and feeds inside the poach of the mother until it is bigger to come out.  Even if it leaves the poach, it will still return to eat, sleep and hide.

The Koala is found naturally in Australia and bones have been found that indicates this animal has been living here for 20 million years.

They eat only the leaves of a eucalyptus tree, nothing else.

They are good climbers and will hide and sleep in the trees.  They have sharp claws that helps them with climbing.

Koalas will only make a noise when it is breeding season, to attract a mate, when it is not mating season, they are very quiet animals.

 A baby koala is called a ‘joey’. 

The baby will stay in the mom's poach for about 6 months and once he has outgrown it, he will stay with his mother for at least another 6 months.

It is not legal (so it is against the law) to keep a koala as a pet, but needless to say, there are people who does this.

• Watch the video and answer the questions.

1. Who are sitting in the tree?
2. What is this story about?
3. What happened because there were no rain?
4. What did the mother do when there was not enough water when Tree Kangaroo was small.
5. Why did the kangaroo dig so long?
6. What did Koala say when he climbed down the tree?
7. What did Koala do when he heard Tree Kangaroo found water?
8. What did tree kangaroo do?
9. Why does Koala have a stumpy tail?
10. Why did Koala loose a friend?

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