Australia has lost about 30 percent of its koalas over the past three years, hit by drought, bushfires and developers cutting down trees, the Australian Koala Foundation said, urging the government to do more to protect the creature’s habitat.
The independent non-profit group estimated that the koala population has dropped to less than 58,000 this year from more than 80,000 in 2018, with the worst decline in the state of New South Wales, where the numbers have dropped by 41 percent.
“The declines are quite dramatic,” Australian Koala Foundation chairwoman Deborah Tabart said yesterday.
Photo: Reuters
There were no upward trends anywhere in Australia. Only one area in the study was estimated to have more than 5,000 koalas, and some regions were estimated to have as few as five or 10.
Tabart said that the country needs a koala protection law.
The Australian government in June called for public comment on a national recovery plan for New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory, as well as whether the koala’s threatened species protection status should be raised from “vulnerable” to “endangered.”
Comments on the recovery plan are due on Friday.
Besides the drought and fires, land clearing by property developers and road builders has destroyed the marsupial’s habitat.
“I think everyone gets it. We’ve got to change. But if those bulldozers keep working, then I really fear for the koalas,” Tabart said.
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