We met Pepper the koala at the Walkabout Wildlife Park, a wildlife sanctuary just north of Sydney, in Australia. In person, koalas are just as cute and cuddly-looking as you might expect. They’re also veeeeeryslooooooow moooooooving. Koalas sleep for up to 18 hours a day—Pepper included.
Pepper is a 9-year-old lady koala who came to the animal sanctuary from a zoo in Queensland, Australia. She is very attached to the head ranger, Karen, but she did get curious enough about 4-year-old Sebastian and 5-year-old Soraia to get close enough for a nose rub. Koalas are often mistakenly called bears but they are actually marsupials, like so many of the mammals unique to Australia. Marsupials carry their babies in a pouch. Koalas mainly live in eastern Australia and love to eat eucalyptus leaves. So if you spot one in the wild, that’s where you’ll usually find it tucked up in the branches of a tall eucalyptus tree, snoozing the day away.
Make sure to check out all of our animal-inspired graphic tees. Here’s a round up of all our new pieces that feature Pepper’s friends!
Learn more about koalas over on National Geographic’s site and print out our koala mask activity here.
