Bengie the Koala
Written By Carissa Loose Illustrated By Haley Kropp
This book was published in Spring 2015 in the course Introduction to Design taught by Katie Ries. The author of the book is Carissa Loose. The typeface of the title is Agent Orange, while the typeface for the body is Century Gothic. The book was illustrated by Haley Kropp who used digital coloring to add to her illustrations.
Hi, I’m Bengie!
I’m a Koala! I have a grey, stout, tailless body. My ears are round and fluffy. I have a large spoon-shaped nose and five claws on each of my paws. My brothers and sisters are 24-33 inches tall and weigh 9-33 pounds.
I live in Victoria, Australia. Some other Koalas live in Queensland, New South Wales, and Australia. Koalas are herbivores, which means we don’t eat meat. We prefer to live in the woodlands because of all of the trees with leaves.
The groups of trees I visit regularly are called my Home Trees. The ground around my home trees is called a Home Range.
When I was born, I was called a Joey. I was the size of a jellybean! I was born without sight, furless, and earless. After birth, I had to climb into my mothers pouch. For the first six months of my life, I stayed in my mother’s pouch and drank milk.
At around six months, my mother started producing pap. Pap is a semi-liquid that will help me eat and digest gum leaves, which are toxic to most animals. I will eat pap for the next couple of weeks until I am ready to leave my mother’s pouch for the first time.
When I was about seven months old, I left my mother’s pouch and ate gum leaves for the first time. During the next few months, I will hang from my mother’s belly, ride on her back, and return to her pouch to drink milk until I am too big or she has another joey.
After leaving my mother’s pouch, I will begin to eat gum leaves as my main diet. I sniff my leaves to determine which are the best and only eat leaves that are high in protein. I do not drink water because I get the water that I need from eating the gum leaves.
I eat my leaves by hanging onto a branch upside-down with my back paws and one front paw while my other front paw grasps the leaves I put into my mouth.
After eating, I like to groom myself with my back paws.
I communicate with other koalas by snorting and then belching - otherwise known as a bellow.
I spend most of my time sleeping. I sleep up to 20 hours a day. I am up mostly at night, which means I am partly nocturnal.
When the weather is warm outside I sleep with my back or belly on a branch with my arms dangling.
When I get too hot, I climb lower in the tree and hug the trunk to loose heat.
When it is cold outside I curl up into a tight ball to save energy.
When it is windy, I climb lower in the tree and stay close to the trunk where there is less wind.
Between the ages of one and three I will leave my mother to find my own home range. I will live to be about 18 years old.