Koalas are increasingly under threat from animals, disease and loss of habitat. Image: Shutterstock.
The cute and cuddly koala, one of our most well known native animals, is under threat from habitat loss and disease.This September is “save the koala month”, and the Australian Koala Foundation has estimated that there are currently less than 80,000 koalas remaining in the wild, but there is currently no federal legislation that protects them.
The main threat to the koalas is the loss of their habitat and food trees. Approximately 80 per cent of Australia’s eucalypt forests have been cleared since European settlement, including the eastern seaboard areas that were favoured by the koala.
They are also at risk from Chlamydia, which manifests when a population is under stress, as well as attacks from domestic animals, road accidents and bushfires. But in spite of the threats the koala is facing, it has not been listed as a vulnerable species by the Federal government.
Deborah Tabart is the CEO of the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Koala Foundation and has been trying for 22 years trying to get the Koala protected as a vulnerable species. “The plight of the koala is well understood and the people are really behind it.”
Deborah believes that we need to look at the landscape as a whole, what we know about it, how it has been fragmented through clearing and development and how many dead koalas have been found, rather than following the current IUCN guidelines. “I don’t think these guidelines are realistic for a country like Australia.
“I don’t think we can fix an issue unless we accept there’s a problem,” she says. “With an animal as important as this as an icon”¦why would you take the risk?”
