Why Koalas drink little or no Water?

Koalas as compared to other animals in the animal kingdom, drink little or no water at all. This lifestyle of koalas is rather unusual within the family of marsupial animals as well. It is very rare to locate a koala near waterholes or ponds and in fact very few documentaries have actually witnessed them drinking water from the waterholes in normal circumstances.

Undoubtedly; the Koalas drink little or no water at all. In fact the word koala itself means "No Water" in the native Australian language.

On the other hand; the aboriginal and native people of Australia were the first ones to figure out that koalas actually do not drink water from the waterholes. Therefore; they named them accordingly i.e., Coola, Colo and Koolewong etc. which all meant no water or lacking in water. One may wonder how an animal who doesn't drink water fulfills its water requirements? Let's read further to figure it out.

First of all koalas drink very little or no water because of their static lifestyle. Unlike monkeys which are very active and quickly switch trees, koalas as arboreals do not switch trees and places that often. They just stay on a tree for as long as possible and move only if it becomes extremely necessary. Secondly; koalas are very sluggish like sloths. They only move when they have to eat or mate.

Koalas stay still and they are very sluggish like sloths. This kind of a lifestyle helps them to conserve water for the longer periods within their bodies.

Other than that koalas would stay still on trees and sleep as long as possible. All of these attributes help koalas to conserve the water levels and energy within their bodies for a longer period of time. Such a lifestyle also prompts for a very little craving of water for koalas.

Koalas also have a very specialized fur which help them to retain a certain amount of water level within their bodies. Even within very hot climates the water from the koalas' bodies do not evaporate that easily.

The koalas have specialized fur and they excrete less urine which help them to conserve the water within their bodies. Consequently; the koalas drink little or no water at all.

Secondly; koalas do not urinate much and they urinate only twice a day. Even if they have to mark a territory, they usually mark it once on a single tree or a few numbers of tree with their chest secretions. All such lifestyle mechanisms reduce their urge for drinking water.

Another key reason for koalas to drink little or no water may involve their instinct of evaluating danger at the waterholes. In the animal kingdom, the waterholes are mostly serve as the hunting ground for many carnivore predators. They ambush animals who come for drinking water and tend to hunt them down very easily. Koalas on the other hand are very slow and can prove out to be an easy picking for a predator.

Koalas drink little or no water from the waterholes in the wild because they may become a very easy prey for the predators.

If a koala goes to a waterhole and a predator like dingo saws it, there is no escape for a koala who is very slow as compared to a dingo. Therefore; in order to avoid predators, koalas might have also switched to other sources such as their key diet to fulfill their water requirements.

Koalas fulfill their water requirements by extracting water contents within their diets. Even koalas have a very unique diet i.e., Eucalyptus and gum tree leaves. This diet of eucalyptus or gum leaves comprises of more than 50 percent of water contents which is mostly sufficient for koalas to fulfill all their water requirements through their diet.

Even though the koalas drink little or no water at all, the koalas fulfill their water requirements by extracting water contents from their diet i.e., the eucalyptus leaves.

Thanks to a very specialized digestive mechanism within their bodies which specializes in extracting water contents from the Eucalyptus leaves and fulfilling the water requirements of koalas.

Yet still the life is not that much simple for the koalas to fulfill their water requirements. They have to select the eucalyptus leaves with higher contents of water. According to observers,Koalas prefer eucalyptus leaves that have at least more than 50% water contents within them.

The koalas usually prefer the fresh eucalyptus leaves because of higher proportions of water contents within them.

Similarly; koalas mostly prefer fresh leaves because these leaves have more water than the other leaves. During the summer seasons, koalas prefer Eucalyptus leaves with more than 63% of the water contents while during the winter seasons koalas select leaves with 50% of water contents.

Finally; koalas prefer and choose those areas which have a good quality of soil with higher proportion of water. This gives them a sort of an assurance that the leaves will be full of nutrition and water contents which will ultimately fulfill their water and energy requirements

Koalas are even capable of surviving the long water droughts because their bodies are known to conserve water for a longer periods of time.

Koalas bodies also have an amazing mechanism to store water which helps them to survive during droughts. Remember; droughts are very common in Australia, therefore; water shortages for animals is a common scenario. On the other hand; koalas have beautifully adopted to such harsh conditions and have been surviving and thriving in such conditions for thousands of years.