64 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



records suggest that the animal was practically confined to the 

 South-West Division of Western Australia, from Perth southward. 

 (See map, Shortridge, 1910, p. 829.) 



Glauert (1933, p. 24) gives its range as "lower South- Western 

 Australia in small isolated colonies, which suggest that the animal 

 is on the verge of extinction through natural causes." 



No particular information is at hand concerning its enemies, aside 

 from Gilbert's remark (in Gould, 1863, vol. 1, p. 25) : "It ... is 

 often found in holes in the ground, . . . from which it is often 

 hunted out by the Kangaroo dogs." 



Family PHASCOLARCTID AE : Koalas 



The Koalas, consisting of a single genus and species, with three 

 subspecies, are restricted to eastern Australia. All forms come 

 within the scope of the present work. 



New South Wales Koala; Native Bear 



PHASCOLARCTOS CINEREUS CINERE(US (Goldfuss) 



fypurus cinereus Goldfuss, in Schreber, Saugthiere, pis. 155 Aa, Ab, 1817; 



Isis (Oken), 1819, Heft 2, p. 271. ("The forests of New Holland, about 



50-60 English miles [southwest] from Port Jackson [Sydney]," New 



South Wales.) 

 FIGS.: Waterhouse, 1841, pi. 31; Gould, 1854, vol. 1, pis. 13, 14; Lydekker, 



1894, pi. 10; Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. 70, no. 6, p. 715, right-hand fig, 1936; 



Pocock, 1937, p. 626, fig. (subsp.?). 



Once numerous in the timbered areas of New South Wales, the 

 typical subspecies of this unique animal has been reduced almost to 

 the verge of extinction, although many thousands of the Queensland 

 subspecies (P. c. adustus) and perhaps a thousand of the Victorian 

 subspecies (P. c. victor) still exist. 



The fur is dense and woolly; general color gray, either light or 

 dark, sometimes mottled, with whitish patches on hind quarters; 

 under parts, hands, and feet more or less whitish ; ears large, thickly 

 haired; tail rudimentary. Head and body, 700-820 mm. (Le Souef 

 and Burrell, 1926, pp. 291-292.) Auburn groin patches separated 

 by a creamy-white median area (Troughton, 1935, p. 139). 



The Koala feeds almost entirely on the foliage of a few trees 

 of the genus Eucalyptus: E. viminalis, E. melliodora, E. rostrata, 

 E. microcorys, and E. maculata (Sutton, 1934, p. 78). Thus the 

 ranges of the three subspecies are pretty definitely restricted to 

 those areas in which /some or all of these eucalypts occur. The 

 species as a whole formerly ranged from extreme southeastern 

 South Australia through Victoria and the eastern half of New 

 South Wales into Queensland (see map, Victorian Nat., vol. 51, 



