An animal of Australian eucalypt forests. Trees provide both resting places and the leaves it eats.
A study in southeastern Australia found more koalas pressing against trunks or large lower branches on days above 30°C. They also used the non-food tree Acacia mearnsii, whose trunk surfaces were cooler than the surrounding air.
Koalas eat eucalypt leaves but also use trees that are not food plants. Research in southeastern Australia documented animals pressing against trunks cooler than the surrounding air on hot days. A tree can therefore be a cooling site as well as a source of food.
Night-time GPS records from 23 koalas near Gunnedah, New South Wales, in 2015–2017 showed more revisits to high-leaf-nitrogen trees where surrounding trees were less connected. Koalas also stayed longer in trees with higher leaf nitrogen and in trees with larger trunk diameters.
On farmland near Gunnedah, New South Wales, cameras monitored artificial water stations from 18:00 to 08:00 between March 2016 and March 2017. Koalas drank on 401 of 605 visits. Visits were more frequent in summer, and drinking bouts lasted longer as the number of days since rain increased.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Clearing and fragmentation for housing and farming reduce koala habitat. Both the presence of trees and the continuity of forest matter.
Habitat loss and fragmentation and disease threaten koalas. Australian conservation research also uses genetics to understand population health and habitat connections.