Koala Crossing - A Gift from Sydney

Photo: BrokenSphere, CC BY 3.0 (cropped)

A stop on San Francisco Zoo: Exhibit by Exhibit, a free self-guided tour.

Look up into the eucalyptus branches. Koala Crossing opened in 1985, when a pair of koalas arrived as a gift from Sydney, Australia, San Francisco's sister city. The habitat is modeled on an Australian outback station, and over the years the zoo has bred several joeys here.

Koalas are marsupials, not bears. A newborn is about the size of a jelly bean and finishes growing in its mother's pouch. Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves, which are tough and low in nutrition, so they save energy by sleeping or resting up to 20 hours a day.

On mild days you may spot a koala high in the trees of the outdoor yard. When it is cold or wet, the koalas usually stay in their heated building, where you can sometimes see one through the viewing window. In the wild, koalas face habitat loss, drought, disease and bushfires.

Getting here: Head south from the Playfield Lawn past the flamingo pond to the koala yard and its viewing building.

Did you know?: Koala fingerprints are so similar to human fingerprints that they can be hard to tell apart, even under a microscope.

Photo op: Scan the forks of the trees, where koalas like to wedge themselves, and zoom in rather than using flash.

For kids: Play spot the koala: the first person to find one tucked in the branches wins.

Nearby: Restrooms are near the Wildlife Theater and the flamingo pond, a short walk west.

More on Wikipedia: Koala · Sydney · Eucalyptus

Koala Crossing - A Gift from Sydney

Stops on this tour