Species profile
Phascolarctos cinereus
Koala
VU · Vulnerable — Vulnerable — high risk of extinction in the wild
About this species
Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is part of the curated SpeciesWatch catalogue and is classified as Vulnerable. Koalas sleep up to 20 hours a day because eucalyptus leaves are so poor in energy and full of toxins that digesting them takes enormous effort. Its recorded population direction is decreasing, so the category needs to be read alongside continuing losses of individuals or local populations.
Habitat, behaviour and ecological role
This profile associates the species with terrestrial, forest. These labels summarise environments used during different stages of its life rather than drawing an exact range boundary. Koalas have fingerprints so similar to humans that they have occasionally confused forensic investigators. Its anatomy and behaviour are responses to those environments, while movement can connect distant places requiring different forms of management.
Why this species is at risk
Baby koalas transition from milk to eucalyptus by eating a special soft dropping produced by their mother, which inoculates their gut with the microbes they will need. The catalogue records 4 principal pressures for this profile: Habitat loss, Bushfires, Disease, Climate change. They should not be treated as isolated causes. Habitat change, exploitation, pollution, disease and climate stress can reinforce one another, while the importance of each pressure varies between regions and through time.
Conservation outlook
Protecting and reconnecting habitat is a priority, together with infrastructure planning that keeps feeding, breeding or migration routes functional. Climate monitoring and protection of ecological refuges are needed because reducing other pressures improves the capacity to adapt. Biosecurity, health surveillance and careful management of small populations help contain risks that can spread rapidly. Actions need long-term monitoring and revision as evidence changes; a positive intervention in one place does not by itself represent recovery across the species.
Editorial review: 2026-08-21
Threat factors
Known occurrences
Dots are georeferenced occurrence records from OBIS (marine) and GBIF (global), not individual animals and not a complete range map. Up to 500 recent API results are cached; the profile renders at most 500 points.
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Listen to this species
Benarkin State Forest, Queensland · 0:49 · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Stories connected to this species
Editorial context connecting this profile to climate, habitat and human activity.