Koalas Are a Type of Bear

Koalas are marsupials, not bears, and the two are not closely related at all. Marsupials carry their young in a pouch and raise tiny, undeveloped joeys, the same group as kangaroos, wombats, and possums. Bears are placental mammals on a completely different branch of the family tree; the koala's nearest relative is the wombat, not anything ursine. Early European settlers slapped 'bear' on them because they vaguely resembled one, and the nickname stuck, but biologically it is as wrong as calling a kangaroo a deer. A baby koala is even called a joey and spends about six months in the pouch, which no bear does. So drop the 'bear'. It is just a koala, a leaf-eating marsupial that happens to look cuddly and, fair warning, has the temperament and claws to remind you it is not.