Vanessa Cox, age 10, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, for her

question:

Are koalas really bears?

We call him a koala bear because he looks a lot like a cuddly teddy bear. But actually the koala is not related to the bears at all. For one thing, a mother bear gives birth to live babies and nurses them like other mammal animals. A mother koala also gives birth to a live baby, but the helpless little one is less than one inch long. He spends his first six months inside her fur lined pouch, where he feeds on mother's mill:.

Bears and koalas are both mammal animals because their babies are fed on mother's milk. But the koala is a marsupial, because the mother keeps her baby in a pouch. When it comes to character, bears and koalas are very different. The koala is a gentle little animal, and rather lazy. But nobody can guess what a cranky bear is likely to do next. So this summer, when we visit the wilds, let's Beware of the Bears.