3rd Posting

Koalas

Koalas might be born without some senses but they still have to make their journey with some help. A newborn Koala, called a joey, is born the miniscule size of a jellybean, blind, hairless and deaf. Armed with tis well-developed senses of smell and touch along with its mighty front legs, claws and gift of direction, the joey must make its way from the birth canal to its mother's pouch.

Koalas can digest tough, leathery eucalyptus leaves. The secret to this remarkable ability is actually from pap, the substance a koala mother produces when a koala is six months old. It comes from the mother's intestines and contains bacteria that the joey will eventually need as an adult to digest an adult koala's diet.

Koalas are lazy sloths. Koalas have been known to spend as many as 18 whole hours in just one day for napping and resting.

Giant Pandas

Pandas are fast eaters. Pandas eat speedily, they eat massive amounts and they spend approximately 12 hours or half a day doing so. The reason for this speed eating at mass amounts is that they digest a mere 20% or one fifth of what they eat and to begin with, bamboo lacks nutritional content.

Giant Pandas' homes are steadily decreasing. Wild Giant Pandas can only be found in the mountainous bamboo forests of Southwestern China which is shrinking quickly as people continue to farm, log and develop land higher and higher up mountain slopes which the rare Pandas call home.

Newborn Giant Pandas are tiny. Newborn Giant Pandas weigh a miniscule 85 to 113 grams, a mere 1/900th of what their mother weighs.

Cheetahs

Cheetahs are the fastest animals on land. Cheetahs can reach lightning speeds of 97 or even 113 kilometres per hour over short distances of open land.

A cheetah's footfalls cover incredible distances. When a cheetah is running at its top speed, it covers 7.3 metres in merely fouor footfalls. This is an average of 1.825 metres per footfall.

A cheetah takes a long time to regain its stamina. After a vigrous chase, a cheetah needs at least half an hour to recover its stamina before it can gorge itself on the prey it caught.

Tigers

Tigers vary in sizes. Tigers that live in the frostier mountain areas are usually larger and heavier than those tigers that live in warm, tropical areas.

A tiger's roar is amazingly loud. A tiger's bellowing roar can be heard as far as a record three kilometres away.

Tigers are different from most felines. Unlike most members of the feline family that abhorr water, tigers take to the water like dolphins. They swim well and often soak in streams or creeks to cool off after a blistering day.

Lions

Lions are like most felines, who love to laze around. Lions rest up to 20 hours a day and only wait for the coolest, darkest times to hunt which is usually in the twilight hours.

Lions have been known to be vicious. When an outsider male enters a pride, it is not unusual for him to kill cubs to ensure all future cubs have his genes.

Lions are not really that unfriendly after all. Lions are sociable creatures as long as it is amongst their own kind and they usually live in groups, known as "prides" which can be as small as 3 or as large as 40 lions.