NOW KOALAS DIE AS FORESTS CUT DOWN

Fury after dozens starve or get bulldozed at logging site

WILDLIFE campaigners are in uproar after dozens of koalas were killed or injured by logging operations.

The marsupials – whose numbers have already been devastated by weeks of fierce bushfires – died after hundreds of gum trees were cut down.

The logging at a site in the Australian state of Victoria left the creatures stranded in only a few isolated patches of woodland, with not enough of the type of leaves they eat.

Many starved to death while others are believed to have been hit by bulldozers and other heavy machinery.

Animal rescue groups sent teams to the site and recovered 80 of the animals but 25 were already so ill that vets had to put them down.

News of the logging carnage comes after tens of thousands of cute koalas which, together with kangaroos, are often used as symbols to promote

Australia and its products – died in wildfires.

In south Australia’s Kangaroo Island, near Adelaide, as many as 25,000 are feared lost, while a third of their habitat has been destroyed in New South Wales.

Friends of the Earth said it received reports of hundreds of starving koalas after the timber site was logged. Another group, Animals Australia, accused loggers of failing to obey rules which require them to have “koala spotters” in place before machinery moves in and to take care of displaced animals.

Helen Oakley, who lives near the cleared site, said on social media: “There are koalas lying there dead. Mothers killed and their little babies. Australia should be ashamed of this.”

The country’s Environment Department, which lists koalas as “vulnerable”, said it was prepared to bring prosecutions over the incident.

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HORROR One of the dead koalas