| Title | Too Many or Too Few Koalas? | |
| Date | Wednesday May 22 2019, @07:18PM | |
| Author | janrinok | |
| Topic | ||
| from the counting-101 dept. | ||
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.
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