Koala
Phascolarctos cinereus
- Size
- About 70 to 80cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Gum forests of eastern and south-eastern Australia
A stout, grey, woolly animal with big fluffy ears and a large black nose. It lives in gum trees.
The koala that follows you
This page is the Australian bush: open forest of gum trees. Move your pointer and your animal will amble, waddle or fly after you. Choose a different animal at the bottom, and tap the notes to open them.
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01 · BearNot a bear
Koalas are marsupials, not bears. Their closest relative is the wombat.
02 · SleepTwenty hours of sleep
Gum leaves give so little energy that a koala sleeps for up to 20 hours a day.
03 · FoodFussy eaters
They eat almost nothing but eucalyptus leaves, which are poisonous to most animals.
04 · WaterRarely drinks
A koala gets most of its water from leaves, though it will drink in hot weather.
05 · PrintsFingerprints
Koalas have fingerprints so like ours that even experts can mix them up.
06 · PouchA pouch that opens downwards
The joey spends six months in the pouch, then rides on its mother's back.
Meet them all
Who's who in the bush
Common wombat
Vombatus ursinus
- Size
- About 1m long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Forests and hills of south-eastern Australia and Tasmania
A sturdy, short-legged, brown animal like a small bear, built for digging.
Laughing kookaburra
Dacelo novaeguineae
- Size
- About 43cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Woods, farms and gardens of eastern Australia
A big, stocky kingfisher with a cream head, a dark eye-stripe, brown wings and a heavy beak.
Short-beaked echidna
Tachyglossus aculeatus
- Size
- About 40cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Almost everywhere in Australia, from desert to snow
A round, brown animal covered in cream spines, with a long thin snout.
Sulphur-crested cockatoo
Cacatua galerita
- Size
- About 50cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Woods, farms and towns of northern and eastern Australia
A big white parrot with a yellow crest that it can raise like a fan, and a dark beak.
Tasmanian devil
Sarcophilus harrisii
- Size
- About 65cm long, plus the tail
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Forest and farmland in Tasmania
A stocky, black marsupial the size of a small dog, with a white chest band, pink ears and strong jaws.
Through the year
When to look for them
Bush animals are about all year. Many are easiest to find at dusk or after dark. The animal following you is shown in red.
Koala
Wombat
Kookaburra
Echidna
Cockatoo
Tasmanian devil
Good to know
Six things about the bush
Hundreds of gum trees
There are more than 700 kinds of eucalyptus, and nearly all of them grow only in Australia.
Made for fire
Many bush plants need fire: the heat opens their seed pods, and new shoots sprout from burnt trunks.
Blue haze
Oil from the leaves hangs in the air on hot days. It gives the Blue Mountains their name.
Homes in hollows
Old gum trees have holes that parrots, possums and owls nest in. A good hollow takes a hundred years to form.
A night shift
Most bush mammals come out after dark. A torch with a red filter is the way to see them.
Mammals that lay eggs
Australia has the only mammals that lay eggs: the echidna and the platypus.
Photo gallery
Real photos of the animals on this page. Tap one to see it bigger.
Koala
Common wombat
Laughing kookaburra
Short-beaked echidna
Sulphur-crested cockatoo
Tasmanian devil
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons and are used under free licences. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews. Open a photo to see who took it.
Under the gum trees
Gum trees, or eucalypts, make up most of Australia's forests. Their oily leaves are poor food and burn fiercely, and the animals of the bush have learned to live with both.
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