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Are koalas dying out in Australia or not? According to the latest news, the answer is: maybe! A hormone based program has been started to reduce the numbers of koalas .....
"In one area of woodland in the central hills, 13 koalas per hectare have been recorded and we are now seeing severe impacts due to over-browsing," Natural Resources Adelaide regional director Brenton Grear said.
"Optimal koala densities to prevent over-browsing of their habitat and ensure the long-term welfare of the koalas is around one per hectare." Mr Grear said there was considerable evidence of over-browsing of preferred food trees, with severe defoliation, dead or dying trees. "In effect, one of the greatest threats to the koala population in parts of the Mt Lofty Ranges is the koala population itself," he said.
The fertility program involves capturing individual animals to administer a hormone implant in a process that takes less than 10 minutes.
.... while the Australian Koala Foundation believes koalas are now 'functionally extinct'.
Koala bears have been declared "functionally extinct," the Australian Koala Foundation [AKF] reports.
The New York Post reports that the fluffy marsupial is down to just 80,000 wild species members, meaning there aren't enough breeding adults left to support another generation of the pouched mammals.
The tree-dwelling species has been ravaged by the effects of rising temperatures and heatwaves, which have caused widespread deforestation and fatal dehydration in koalas, according to the AKF.
Only 41 of the koala's 128 known habitats in federal environments have any of the animals left.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday May 22 2019, @07:33PM (4 children)
2019 AD , that is 3 before [4th directive triggered]
Not content with transgendering their own offspring with pollution and actual hormone therapy, meatbags start messing with koalas. Neither will be missed.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 22 2019, @07:58PM (3 children)
Same group of people who didn't believe penguins would move to where the food was. This type of person has a drone-type mindset that requires someone else to tell them what to do/believe and projects that onto everyone/thing else. Like ants or bees, they are selected when young for the ability to parrot back short "chirps" to their instructors.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Pav on Wednesday May 22 2019, @09:35PM (1 child)
Australian here. The eucalypt forrests that once supported koalas have mostly been bulldozed for either agriculture or expanding suburbia.
Australia is the driest continent on earth (although some consider Antarctica the driest due to low precipitation). There's a small green sliver around the edge which both koalas and humans prefer, and the humans are winning. Koalas have been trying to migrate to less favourable open woodlands, but these are grazed by cattle which often kick them to death [youtube.com].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 22 2019, @09:46PM
There you go, a two for one:
Reduce your beef consumption to help reduce global warm AND give koalas more land
Same situation in Brazil but instead of koalas it is amphibians and insects that people don’t get as excited about saving.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @01:15AM
Someone is angry and full of themselves!