Koalas: Zen in Fur by Joanne Ehrich Book Info

Despite their likeness to teddy bears and our natural inclination to want to call them koala-bears, koalas aren't even remotely related to any of the bears.

Most Australian animals that aren't either fish, birds, insects, or reptiles are marsupials—animals which carry embryonic youngsters (also known as joeys) in pouches unlike their mostly furry mammalian counterparts in the rest of the world. Any similarity between marsupials and non-Australian placental mammals is mostly coincidental and contingent on the different environmental factors each animal needs to adapt to, based on its respective individual geographical conditions.

Koalas are listed as a "vulnerable" species in several states in Australia. While there were an estimated 10,000,000 koalas in the year 1900, there are about 100,000 left only 100 years later, with most living on private land according to the Australian Koala Foundation. Some estimates report that there are only 2,000 to 8,000 koalas in the wild with population having dropped by 90 percent in around a decade. Australia's East Coast where most koalas still live, is the fastest developing housing area of all first-world countries. Eucalyptus forests, which the koalas depend on to survive, disappear quickly. Koalas need to come down to the ground and travel larger distances to find other trees or mates. This subjects them to their number one enemies: cars and dogs. Each year, approximately 4,000 koalas that were attacked by dogs or hit by cars get admitted to koala hospitals. Only an estimated 20% of those admitted actually survive to be released back to the wild.

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