So yesterday I went to Jirrahlinga Koala and wildlife sanctuary in Barwon heads, Australia and visited with some Koalas.

Here are four photos and four things you need to know about Koalas

Firstly - Not a bear - don't call them Koala bears - they are marsupials - most closely related to wombats, which if you know what a wombat looks like, then you can see the same shape in the head.

They only eat eucalyptus leaves - of the 600 or so types of eucalyptus trees Koalas only eat 13 different types, but each individual Koala can only eat one - eucalyptus oil in the leaves is poisons, but they have immunity through their mother's milk, this does however make them very prone to habitat loss, you can just move them, you have to find the exact right type of tree. As you can see in this photo they tend to eat the smaller leaves which have more water - also they don't drink water, they only need water if there are no leaves to eat.

They are very soft (yes I got to pat this one) and very cute, but in the wild will bite you, so don't touch them. You can see the teeth in this shot, but it;'s the claws you want to watch out for

They are reasonably common in Victoria (where I am) but were estimated to go extinct in 2050 in NSW and Queensland, but with the recent bushfires they are expecting this to be much sooner now. - Our Koalas in Victoria are a little darker fur and a bit bigger than the Northern cousins.