This two-minute National Geographic video highlights some of the koala characteristics you’ll read about: I thought what how can northern koalas be smaller when then are in colder climates. Then it dawned on me that Australia is in the southern hemisphere and that northern is closer to the equator and warmer while south is closer to the south pole and colder. Clode is a master at popularising science and making the complex understandable …An important book that focuses on the koala but is really an impassioned and informed plea for the conservation of Australia’s flora, fauna, and wild places. This is natural history and science writing at its best.’—Peter Menkhorst, Australian Book Review Marsupials stay pregnant for a very short time and have a pouch. Koala bears stay pregnant for 30-35 days. The new born koala bear is called a joey. It weighs half a gram. When born, a joey crawls into its mama’s pouch and feeds on milk. Koala is more than just a fascinating book about these marsupials … I loved reading this book.’ —Readings

The tree-dwelling koala is one of Australia's most iconic species, yet it is threatened by habitat loss. Danielle Clode, a natural storyteller, has written an insightful book that deepens our understanding of this fascinating animal and highlights the urgency of its survival.’—Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees I have been reading this one off and on for a couple of months. Nonfiction is not my thing so I just read a chapter here and there but close to the end I did not want to put the book down. I have loved koalas all of my life so when I saw this book available on edelweiss I had to have it. This book starts millions of years ago so when it says a history, it means a history. Also, the author is a zoologist and that shows as well. There are so many technical terms and you learn every piece of the koala inside and out. SO many scientific facts! My poor husband as I read and told him so many facts about the koala. I learned so much! One day I will go to Australia and see a koala in the wild! Who doesn't love a book about koalas? These beautiful story books are full of colourful pictures, perfect for celebrating Australia’s beloved furry animal. By reading these books on koalas, children will familiarise themselves with this special species and begin to understand the importance of caring for endangered animals. In dedicating this unusual, beautifully told story, Clode confirms what the reader delightfully discovers: there’s something in this book everyone can enjoy and learn from. When Clode lays out a “perfect world” and fears of an “apocalyptic wasteland,” she’s not just speaking about koalas. “Quite literally,” she says, she’s standing up “to protect life as we know it.” Part of the Lulu Bell series, this book follows protagonist Lulu on her holiday to Tarni Beach. Everything is perfect: She has a new pink surfboard, Dad is going to teach her to surf, and she has her friend Zac by her side to explore the nearby bush. But bulldozers have arrived, posing a threat to the trees and wildlife. If all the trees are taken away, mummy koala and her joey won’t have a home. It’s up to Lulu to work out how to help them.

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We learn that two-thirds of Australia’s mammals are marsupials, more than anywhere else in the world. Like the kangaroo, koalas have outside pouches for carrying and nurturing their babies called joeys – the difference between marsupials versus mammals. But their “remarkable” and complex digestive system puts them in a class of their own. So you’re not likely to see koalas in a zoo elsewhere in the world. Feeding them their select types of gum tree leaves, fresh, makes them the most expensive animal to care for and thrive outside their native forests. The San Diego Zoo is a leading exception. If you have time, you can watch them on the zoo’s live cam: If you hadn’t seen the cover and title of Danielle Clode’s newest book, would you guess you’re from a species around for some 37 million years yet only abundantly studied over the last twenty or so years?

A gorgeous special edition celebrating 35 years of this Australian classic by the bestselling and much-loved author of Where is the Green Sheep? and Possum Magic . A vividly written and thoroughly researched celebration of the lives of koalas. Filled with fascinating and often surprising information, the book is also an invitation to honour and protect these extraordinary animals.’—David George Haskell, author of Sounds Wild and Broken and The Songs of Trees Koala investigates the remarkable physiology of these charismatic creatures. Born the size of tiny “jellybeans,” joeys face an uphill battle, from crawling into their mother’s pouch to being weaned onto a toxic diet of gum-tree leaves, the koalas’ single source of food.Koalas are iconic symbols of Australia. Surprisingly, very little is known about them. Danielle Clode, an Australian zoologist/biologist, wants to change that. “It amazes me a creature this iconic and distinctive to Australia is so mysterious.” Her husband says, “Maybe there’s not much to know.” Her reply, Koala: A Natural History and an Uncertain Future,” vividly shows “there is just a lot more to koala than meets the eye.” I remember reading somewhere that koala fur is so think and waterproof that it was once popular for lining the greatcoats of northern armies in Siberia and fur trappers in the depths of the Canadian Yukon. Clode’s travels with koalas range far in time and space, introducing readers to so much about these creatures beyond the shorthands they've become …Clode is a perfect guide for this journey - passionate and knowledgeable, curious and careful - and her map of all the ways these marsupials' stories intersect with ours is yet another vital dotpoint in the vast and interconnected tale of climate change.’—Ashley Hay, author of Gum: The Story of Eucalypts and their Champions

Clode is a master at popularising science and making the complex understandable … An important book that focuses on the koala but is really an impassioned and informed plea for the conservation of Australia’s flora, fauna, and wild places. This is natural history and science writing at its best.’ —Peter Menkhorst, Australian Book Review Koala is filled with interesting facts about Koalas and marsupials. In one chapter Danielle talks about the similarities between Marsupials and Placental animals. I also learned that north Americas marsupial is the Virginia opossum. I never knew that North America had a native marsupial. Now I do. Of the hundreds of species of eucalypts found across Australia, only seventy percent or so are recognized as koala food trees and, of these, any one individual koala might only eat three or five or ten different species. Chasing the rare to inform all of us (Australia, southeastern and eastern coasts; spanning centuries to present-day): Imagine having “nowhere to go, nowhere to hide and no capacity to run” as a roaring fire heads your way “lighting up the horizon with a livid orange glow.” You live in a unique part of the world where bushfires are a way of life. In your world you’re rare. In the spiritual world, you’re a symbol of relaxation and peace. Yours are called “million dollar babies.” You’re simply “unlike anything else we know of.” Who are you?And another thing that I was surprised about is that Koalas are so expensive to keep in captivity. I never would have thought that. One thing that surprised me about Koalas is that they eat mostly eucalyptus trees. I had never thought about what might eat a eucalyptus tree. Also I never knew that eucalyptus trees were so poisonous. Koala bears are marsupials from Australia with fascinating characteristics. Unfortunately, these cute and cuddly creatures are also in grave danger from loss of habitat and disease, and they need our help. Can a new vaccine save the Koalas from a deadly disease that has infected almost all of them? Find out this and more about Koalas in this Kahani’s second book published on Free Kids Books. Sample Text from The Cute and Cuddly Koalas

The story of the koala has taken me into the distant past, across continent and cultures and through an incredibly wide range of knowledge systems: botany, ecology, Indigenous knowledge, evolution, palaeontology, anatomy, conservation biology, history, toxicology, psychology, veterinary and nutritional science, and animal behavior. Mem Fox's books are like a warm blanket; they have a way of making the world seem a little cosier.' The Age

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Danielle talks about the fossils of koalas that have been found, she looks at why they might sleep so much, the impact of fires in Australia on Koalas, where Koalas have lived in the past and live now, and in Koala. Clode does a great job weaving the story of global warming and the accompanying environmental degradation it produces, with the fate of the koalas. They aren't necessarily canaries in the world's coalmine but they certainly are in Australia's. If Clode is correct, Australians who live in the drought- and fire-prone areas of the country will suffer as well as the koalas. Just by chance, those same areas are the same ones where most of the southern koalas live. Nala the Koala has lost her home. . . where will she go next? Searching far and wide, Nala can’t seem to find the perfect place to settle down. Some spots are too sandy, some are too smoky, some are too scratchy. And where have all the trees gone? Gently touching on the concept of preservation, this book exposes young readers to the realities of displacement and the need to protect precious environments. By reading this book, you’re also helping out, as all royalties from the sales are donated to WIRES to help protect koalas and other Australian animals in need.