Koala

**Background Information:** Koala or //Phascolarctos cinereus// resembles a bear,
but they are not and they are smaller in size. They can be found only in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. They love to dwell alone in cooler climates and trees that are in the eucalyptus forests, coastal islands, and low woodlands. Koala's have soft, wool-like fur, and they're furs are usually white and grey. They are capable of carrying their young in its pouch, or also known as marsupial. Koala's can live up to 17 years of age. They like to eat eucalyptus leaves, mistletoe and box leaves. They usually don't drink water, but they get most of their water from the succulent eucalyptus leaves they eat. They have slow metabolism and they're Nocturnal, which means that they sleep during the day, but stay up during the night.

**Scientific Classification: **

 * Domain: || Eukarya ||
 * ====Kingdom: ==== || ====Animalia ==== ||
 * ====Phylum: ==== || ====Chordata ==== ||
 * ====Class: ==== || ====Mammalia ==== ||
 * ====Order: ==== || ====Diprotodontia ==== ||
 * ====Family: ==== || ====Phascolarctidae ==== ||
 * ====Genus: ==== || ====Phascolarctos ==== ||
 * ====Species: ==== || ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Phascolarctos cinereus ==== ||

Koalas are arboreal mammals that originate from Australia, family of the Phascolarctidae. They can be found in coastal regions of eastern and southern Australia. They are more closely related to the kangaroos becaue they're marsupials too. Their population extend in region with enough moisture to support suitable woodlands. They like to live in cooler climate such as the eucalyptus forest, coastal islands, and low woodlands. Their number one favorite food is the eucalypt leaves. Rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere caused the leaves to have toxic and lowering nutrients in eucalyptus leaves. Sensitivity of Koalas are put in danger of the increased temperature and carbon dioxide levels.
 * Habitat:**

Its fur is thick and usually grey with some brown in places. These arboreal mammals have a pouch like the kangaroos to carry its youngs. Koalas have powerful legs, powerful forefeet and their powerful front and hind-paws have a thick, black, leathery skin to help with a tight grip on climbing the eucalyptus trees. They have two thumbs on their front paws to help grip on branches and the sharp, curved claws on all four paws help dig into branches. And they have fused toes for combing their fur as shown on the right picture. They have around 50 bones, small vertical tail and long limbs. Its low metabolism allows solutes and fine particles to stay in its gut for a very long period of time. Majority of it digestive system process occurs in the caecum(fermentation and microbial breakdown to supply for energy). The caecum is noted to be extremely developed and its size is as large as its body, up to four time its body. These herbivorous marsupial weighs about an average of 9kg(20lb). The koalas respiratory system contains the mouth and nose, which serve as the entrance ways. In the lungs, the gas exchange takes place in the alveoli(tiny sacs with walls that are tiny and thin). The alveoli is very thin that the CO2(carbon dioxide) can diffuse out of the blood and the oxygen can diffuse in of the blood. The lungs secrete pulmonary surfactant to keep them moist to reduce surface tension of water. The Koalas have a complete circulatory system. They breathe air that will make their muscles expand and shrink for air movement through the body. In order to keep the blood move through the body, they would need to breathe. They have a heart that has four chambers. They also possessed arteries, veins, pulmonary, and a systemic circuit.
 * Physiology:**

Koalas have little contact with other species. Koalas are not very friendly to one another, but they interact with each other by competing for territories and mating with each other. For a male koala to claim its dominance of a territory(usually 15 trees), he urinates or rub a gland on his chest against the tree trunk. Other koala's would move into a tree after the owner of the tree has died and thier scent and scratches are diminshed due to whether conditions(usually within about a year or so). For a female koala, they make soft clicking, squeaking sounds and gentle humming or murmering sounds for communication. They would generally ignore any other native animals when they passes by their home. They are not migratory animals. In a stable breeding group, individual koala's like to maintain their own home range area.
 * Species Interactions:**

Koalas residing in South Australia breeding season last between November and February, but in the North of Australia they last between September to January. The male koalas fight each other by making loud calls and deep grunts to impress the female koalas. And the male koalas like to mark their territory to message other male koalas to keep out. Female koalas become sexually mature on an early age of two, but for male koalas is three or four. Male koalas are polygamous, they mate with more then one female koalas at night. The female's are not always easy to mate with if they don't want to mate with a specific male, they would claw them causing the male's to have injuries if the male tries to mate with them. When a female koala is pregnant for closely to 35 days, the joey(infant koala) is born. Similarly to the human vagina, the female uses her cloaca to give birth to her young(s). First, fluid comes out of her cloaca and then the joey comes out with no fur. The koala infant is known to be born in an early stage of development, and then develops in the mother's pouch, this is also known as marsupials. The joey feeds on the mother's breast to get milk for its nutrition. The koala stays in the mothers pouch for about five months, it will get out of the mothers pouch to explore. If the young koala feels unsafe or sleepy, than it will get back into the mother's pouch. By the time of 8th month, the koala will not stay in the mother's pouch for its whole entire existence. When the young koala is one years old, the mother will assist the young on how to eat certain leaves.
 * Reproduction:**

Koalas are magnificent creatures so certain human beings like to use its structure for art. There are variety of display used to visualize the idea or concerns for koalas. Some people would capture the image(s) with their camera of a koala and use the picture(s) as an item to be sold. This is like any other artist or photographers that would sell their art work. For some examples, The Art of Sleeping is a picture that was captured by Nadya Neklioudova.
 * In Art:**

Breeding and Reproduction. 1987. 15 April 2011. < __<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #810081; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[] __ > Classification. Mundt, Melinda. 27 April 2007.26 April 2011. <[]> Digestion. 26 March 2011. <<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[] > How Koalas Live, Socialize, and Communicate. 30 March 2011. <__<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #810081; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[] __ > The Art of sleeping. 2011. 26 April 2011. <__<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #810081; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[] __ > The Bare Facts: Koala Physiology. 2004-2006. 14 April 2011. <<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[] > The Telegraph. 2011. 26 March 2011. <[]> National Geographic. 1996-2011. 11 April 2011. <<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[] >
 * Work Cited:**