International Koala Day is celebrated on May 3, but there is little to celebrate for these animals. After the devastating fires of the past months, only 35.000 specimens remain in eastern Australia and by 2050 they could disappear.
International Koala Day is celebrated on May 3, but there is little to celebrate for these extraordinary marsupial mammals. In the fires that ravaged Australia about 60.000 specimens have been affected and only in recent months have those who survived been able to finally return to their natural habitat, after veterinary treatment.
And we cannot forget those terrifying images of koalas being burned by fire, all the more so because Australian fires are only one of the many consequences of global warming, as revealed by the dossier released by the New South Wales government.
Koalas are among the species most affected by fires in Australia
According to the most recent estimates, 3 billion animals have lost their lives and have been displaced by the fires in Australia. And among the most affected species are the koalas, an animal symbol of the nation together with the kangaroo. According to the WWF report "Impacts of the unprecedented 2019-2020 bushfires on Australian animals", the worst koala losses were recorded on Kangaroo Island, with 40.000 individuals potentially affected and in the forests of Victoria, where 11.000 specimens lived. In New South Wales, on the other hand, 8.000 koalas were involved in the fires and of these very few survived.
Koalas could disappear by 2050
After the devastating fires in recent months, the future of koalas looks far from bright. According to Australian authorities, this species is increasingly close to extinction and could disappear by 2050 in New South Wales, unless there is urgent government intervention to prevent habitat loss, which by 80 % was destroyed by flames. But that of fires is not the only problem for the Australian territory: in Australia, in fact, between 300.000 and 500.000 hectares of woods are cut down every year.
And if at the beginning of the last century there were about one million koalas, today in the eastern area of Australia just 35.000 copies remain, a number destined to decrease if effective measures are not taken to protect this unique species in the world.
Source: WWF
Read also:
- Koalas will go extinct before 2050, the alarm of Australian scientists
- In Australia they are about to destroy 52 hectares of koala habitat to enlarge a quarry
- Fires in Australia are clearly linked to global warming
- Do koalas run out of hope? Fires in Australia have destroyed 80% of their habitat
