AR-News: (Malaysia) Koalas in trouble

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

the star online
Tuesday June 22, 2004
By MICHAEL PERRY 
Australia’s cute and furry koalas are declining in numbers as their habitat 
dwindles, writes MICHAEL PERRY.  
KOALAS, an iconic symbol of Australia, face extinction as rapid urbanisation 
along the eastern seaboard destroys their fragile habitat, environmental 
activists have warned.  
The Australian Koala Foundation has written to the government urging it to 
declare the koala a vulnerable species after a survey of 1,000 koala habitats 
found 30% no longer had a koala in them and 6% had suffered widespread 
destruction.  
“I truly believe that in my lifetime the koala will become extinct unless we 
do something,” says Deborah Tabarat, executive director of the foundation.  
 
Althought the koala has no natural predator, it has been in decline for 
decades due to urban sprawl and from car accidents and dog attacks. More than 4,000 
koalas are killed each year by dogs and cars.
Koalas are protected by law but the eucalyptus trees they call home and which 
provide their only source of food are not. There are about 100,000 koalas in 
Australia, down from an estimated seven to 10 million at the time of white 
settlement in 1788. In the 1920s three million koalas were shot for their fur.  
Tabarat says the major problem facing koalas is that the majority of Australia
’s 20 million people and the majority of the koala population both call 
Australia’s eastern states home.  
She says that with 80% of Australia’s east coast temperate forests destroyed 
and continued rapid urbanisation, koalas along the eastern seaboard could be 
extinct in 15 years.  
“This animal is in serious trouble,” says Tabarat. “In 15 years you will not 
see a koala west of the divide,” she adds, referring to the Great Australian 
Divide, mountains that divide east coast Australia from its rural outback. 







full story:
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2004/6/22/features/8239507&sec
=features 


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