Super Koala to the rescue
A TEAM of experts has embarked on a radical plan to create a new breed of koala to protect the future of the endangered species.
Playfully referred to as a “Super Koala”, the new breed would be free of debilitating conditions such as chlamydia and retrovirus.
“We’re actually talking about the future of a species here,” Professor Chris Daniels, a scientist and conservationist, said.
“We are asking how we can save the species, not here, not in Bundaberg, or wherever, but the species.
“Full stop. It’s as serious as that.”
Koalas across the east coast are dying at alarming rates due to a combination of land clearing, climate change and disease.
The crisis peaked in February when they were declared an endangered species in Queensland, NSW and the ACT.
The group Koala Life has launched a counter-attack, aiming to create an “insurance population” for the whole country.
The program began when 28 healthy koalas were taken from Kangaroo Island, in South Australia, in the wake of devastating bushfires, and housed at Cleland Wildlife Park in Adelaide.
These 28 koalas became known as “The Golden Children”.
Then four disease-free male koalas were rushed across the Sa-victorian border from the Strzelecki Ranges in December last year to breed at Cleland.
They were simply called “The Strzelecki Boys”.
The concept is that by combining “The Golden Children” and “The Strzelecki Boys”, new disease-free koalas can be born at Cleland, which at this point has the only disease-free colony in Australia.
The breed would be the first of its kind anywhere in the world.
Professor Corey Bradshaw, from Flinders University, an expert on genetic modelling, has embarked on a four-year, $750,000 project funded by the Australian Research Council to answer key questions around the complex and controversial mission.
Professor Bradshaw said there were many unknowns, but he was confident and the potential pay-off was enormous.
If successful it would be “sold to the top scientists in the world (as a) model for genetic rescue across marsupials” he said.
Prof Bradshaw said that it would also obviously have an immediate impact on the crisis facing Australia’s koalas.
“They’re crashing on the east coast, mainly from deforestation,” he said.
“So this is also potentially an insurance population for the entire country.”