From the December 5, 1931, issue

PROTECTION EXTENDED NEARLY EXTINCT TEDDY BEARS

Koalas, known colloquially in Australia as native bears, real, live teddy bears in soft, plushlike fur, have lately become the objects of special solicitude, both official and private, in the far island-continent that is their home. For several generations nobody paid any more attention to them than Americans pay to squirrels, for they were so numerous that it never occurred to Australians that they could ever become scarce.