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Why does a koala sleep 22 hours a day?

How many hours do you sleep at night? Nine? Ten? And a koala sleeps 22 hours a day! Imagine — only two hours of vivacity, and then back to sleep. And so on, all life on a eucalyptus branch.

But the koala is not lazy - it just needs to save its strength. The whole point is that it eats. The koala's menu consists only of eucalyptus leaves. And this is a very tricky food! It is hard as leather, poor in nutrients and even poisonous to most animals. To process the poison, the koala's body spends an awful lot of energy. So it turns out - it ate, and then it goes to sleep again, because its strength is gone.

Koalas eat up to 1 kilogram of leaves a day and are very picky about their menu. There are about 700 species of eucalyptus trees in the world, but koalas only eat 50 of them. Imagine — they sniff every leaf, and if the smell is not the right one, they won't eat it!

Did you know that the koala hardly drinks water? Its name in the Aboriginal language means "does not drink." It gets all its moisture from moist eucalyptus leaves. Only on very hot days does it go down to a puddle.

A koala is not a bear, as is often thought! It is a marsupial. A baby koala is born the size of a bean and lives in its mother's pouch for six months. And then for another six months it rides on its mother's back and looks over her shoulder as she chews leaves. If you see a koala, be sure to wave to it. And don't be afraid if it is sleeping. It is always sleeping!