Weird Animal Facts: Koalas Have 4 Hours a Day to Get Stuff Done

The laziest animal in the world is also one of the most loved. Koala bears – which are not really bears, but are often called that – have been known to sleep up to 20 hours a day.

Actually, their lengthy sleep times are not due entirely to laziness. They feed on eucalyptus leaves, which contain toxins that are mostly fibrous and take a long time to digest. And because those toxins are low in nutrition, koalas don’t have a whole lot of energy.

Native to Australia, koalas spend a great deal of their day sleeping in treetops. These nocturnal creatures will then spend their few walking hours feeding on plants. Next time you’re in the land down under, look for them on the southeast and eastern sides of the country, near the coasts.

Those who believe koalas have corned the market on cuteness may reconsider after hearing this. Once they’ve been weaned on their mothers’ milk, koalas eat mom’s fecal matter before “graduating” to leaves. Mother is right there and leaves require a climb up a tree, so yeah, that’s where the laziness comes in. On the plus side, mom’s poop helps koalas develop strong gut bacteria. And that helps with the whole digestion thing as they age.

You will probably never see a koala hanging around a drinking fountain. They rarely drink water, yet they stay hydrated from the many leaves they eat every day. And if they ever commit a crime, it might be easily solved. Koalas are one of the few animals with fingerprints similar to those of humans.

As you’d expect, all of their sitting and lying around has led to some evolved physical traits. For example, their tails are short, their spines are curved, and they have some very strong cartilage in their butts.

Unfortunately, this extremely adorable animal is listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Their numbers are declining, but not due to predators. Their enemies are droughts, bushfires, habitat destruction, and sexually transmitted diseases.

Hope you enjoyed this article on weird animal facts. If koalas have fingerprints similar to humans, a talking horse doesn’t seem so far-fetched. But where would a horse like that have come from? Check out my three-volume Bamboo Harvester novel on the Home page of this site.