Fires in Australia killed at least 1000 koalas and destroyed 80% of their natural habitat: numbers that confirm their functional extinction
The devastating fires broke out in Australia in recent weeks have significantly reduced the number of koala and their habitat, probably condemning these animals to extinction. To say it is Deborah Tabart, president of the Australian Koala Foundation, according to which beyond 1000 koala they would have been killed by the fires, while 80% of their habitat would have been destroyed.
The same association had declared the koalas functionally extinct in May of this year, as they have long been threatened by drought, deforestation and hunting.
THEfunctional extinction of a species occurs when the population has decreased to the point that it is no longer able to play a significant role in its ecosystem and when the number of specimens is so small that it cannot reproduce effectively.
Many associations had asked the Australian government to implement the Koala Protection Act, which was supposed to protect trees for koalas and protect the species from hunting.
The program was never approved and, due to further loss of specimens and habitat, now it would seem there is no longer any hope for these poor animals.
Today it is highly unlikely that koala couples who survived the fires will be able to produce a new generation while maintaining a genetic variability that guarantees the viability of the species.
For millions of years koalas have clad a 'fundamental importance for forest health of eucalyptus trees, contributing to the recycling of nutrients, eating the upper leaves of trees and pouring the droppings into the soil.
The fires that hit Australia were truly devastating, as NASA satellite images also show: due to drought and strong winds they spread uncontrollably, destroying over a million hectares of forest.
An adult koala eats about a kilo of eucalyptus leaves a day: the forest fires that have burned in Australia since September have destroyed most of the eucalypt treesor and for several months the few surviving koalas will have immense difficulty in finding resources to feed on.
It is a truly dramatic situation which cannot leave you indifferent and for which many are in fact mobilizing.
Recent videos of Australians rescuing koalas from the flames have gone viral and led to increased donations to support care for injured birds.
The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital has launched a fundraiser that has raised more than a million dollars through donations from over 30 people.
In addition to rescuing the koalas, the veterinary hospital staff are busy withnstall drinking troughs for the animals which are found in the places affected by fires and to build a rehabilitation shelter of the saved specimens.
However, the fate of koalas cannot depend only on the efforts of veterinarians and citizens: scientists and animal rights activists are calling on the government to intervene, finally enacting the Koala Protection Act: the approval of the Koala Protection Act, written in 2016, is more urgent today than ever.
Read also:
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- Koalas are dying burnt alive in fires in Australia - they could go extinct within 30 years
- Australia: the moving video of a koala being rescued after the fires
- Koalas and marsupials injured in the fires, to help them, small bags are sewn by hand to contain them
- The koala saved by the woman who threw herself into the flames is alive and has met her heroine in the hospital
