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I came across this image on Facebook from the website Learn Something Every Day:

enter image description here

When I searched for a reliable source, I came across several sites of the same kind (OMG Facts, Snapple Real Facts,etc.) but never anything quite authoritative.

Is it true?

Oddthinking
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Borror0
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  • Narcopletic Koala bears, certainly do. :-) – Sklivvz Mar 10 '12 at 20:45
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    It certainly isn't an authorative source, because *it doesn't even get the name right*. Koalas are not bears. ["Although taxonomically incorrect, the name koala bear is still in use today outside Australia – its use is discouraged because of the inaccuracy in the name."](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koala) – Oddthinking Mar 11 '12 at 00:18

1 Answers1

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No, but they sleep a lot

Koala dozingSource

Koalas have an extremely slow metabolism because they are herbivores that eat eucalyptus exclusively. Eucalyptus is a poor nutrient (high fibre, low protein).

Because of this, they tend to sleep or rest a lot.

Koalas spent about 4.7 h eating, 4 min travelling, 4.8 h resting while awake and 14.5 h sleeping in a 24-h period.

—Source

While it's a lot, it isn't even close to the 22 hours in the question. Also, note that they spend almost 5h eating. This is again because of their diet and slow metabolism.

Also see:

Nagy & Martin (1985) found that free-ranging koalas spend c. 80% of the time resting or sleeping. Such large periods of inactivity are believed to enable koalas to maintain relatively low energy requirements, and thus to use a poor quality diet (Cork & Sanson, 1990).

—Source

Sklivvz
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