Australian koalas in the near future may disappear
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Australian koalas are more than ever threatened with extinction, so they need to be classified as a vulnerable species, insists scientists who conducted the study commissioned by the Australian government.
As it turned out, the number of koalas sharply decreased. The main reasons for the sharp reduction of these marsupials are the attack of dogs and road accidents. Until 1788, when Australia was colonized by British colonists, there were about 10 million koalas. Now their number in the wild is about 43,515.
Other dangers that negatively affect the population of koalas are frequent and prolonged droughts, felling of eucalyptus forests, construction of new houses, forest fires and diseases, including chlamydia and retroviral koal.
Koalam, who live in the north of Australia, is much harder to survive, as there are so many of them that they have great difficulty with obtaining food.
The authors of the study propose to translate koalas into categories of vulnerable species and insist on the need for immediate measures to preserve these funny animals.
From history it is known that before the emergence of Europeans in Australia, the main cause of death of koalas were droughts and fires. In the XX century these animals became the object of fur fishing. As a result of a sharp reduction in the number of koalas, the government was forced in 1927 to prohibit hunting for koalas. And only in 1954 their numbers began to gradually recover.
[1]