Koalas pushed to the brink of extinction

Conservationists call for Australian marsupial to be declared ‘endangered’ after population collapses

DROUGHT, fires and land clearing have pushed Australia’s koalas to the brink of extinction, animal welfare groups warned yesterday.

They urged Australia’s national government to classify the marsupial as

“endangered” in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory after research by leading conservationists revealed a dramatic collapse in the koala population.

World Wide Fund-australia found that since 2001, the number of koalas in Queensland had been reduced by half, while in New South Wales numbers may have declined by up to 62 per cent, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Drought, deforestation and bush fires – including the devastating fires of 2019-2020 – were the main factors driving the collapse, according to Dr Stuart Blanch, a Wwf-australia scientist, who said the situation was “worse than we thought”.

“We have gone from [koalas] not being a threatened species to [potentially] being listed as an endangered species on the east coast within a decade – I would never have thought that was possible. I never thought we would be losing them so quickly,” he told SBS News.

Raising the threat level to endangered would increase the protection for forests and woodlands where koalas live, mobilise funds and increase public support. “Koalas are the canaries of our forests. If we lose koalas, it means our forests are disappearing as well,” warned Dr Blanch.

He said the move was “inevitable” and must happen as soon as possible.

The devastating bush fires of 201920 contributed heavily to the problem, according to the research.

The report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) found that at least 6,382 koalas were killed in New South Wales between the start of the bush fire season and Feb 13, representing 15 per cent of the region’s koalas. That added to the enormous stress on the population due to land clearing, urban development and drought, with numbers declining by up to 62 per cent since 2001.

Josey Sharrad, an IFAW wildlife campaigner, said the death toll was a conservative estimate which did not include the number of koalas that will die because their habitats have been destroyed by fires. “The surviving koalas have nowhere to go,” she said.

Sue Ashton, of the Koala Hospital in Macquarie, New South Wales, told The

Daily Telegraph that drought severely depleted the koalas’ food supply, a problem exacerbated by bush fires.

“They get about 65 per cent of their hydration from leaves [but] because of the drought the leaves are too dry,” she said.

Koalas desperate for food may venture across roads and into people’s backyards, putting them at risk of being killed by traffic or pet dogs.

Fires drive them from their habitats and their usual sources of food, with a change in diet posing a risk to their health, Ms Ashton added.