The Chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation said that Koalas in Australia is now “functionally extinct” as a result of the bushfires that are happening in Australia.
It is believed that the bushfires have killed thousands of animals and have destroyed nearly 80 percent of the animal’s natural habitat.
Deborah Tabart, the chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF), says over 1000 koalas may have been killed in the bushfires in the last 2 months.
The deaths of the koalas have left the marsupials as “functionally extinct”.
Deborah also explained what it meant for koalas to go functionally extinct.
The chairman explained, “Functionally extinct means that a koala living today might have one joey and that joey may or may not have a joey, if they don’t, that’s functionally extinct. We think there are no more than 16,000-18,000 koalas in the whole of NSW… So to lose a population of that size in a stronghold is disastrous.”
Functionally extinct mans the animal population is unlikely to produce a new generation.
The deaths are a result of constant deforestation and huge bushfires. Both of these things are heavily happening in Queensland and New South Wales.
During an interview, Deborah said, “If we combine all of the estimated deaths of koalas in the bushfires, there could be 1,000 koalas that have been killed in the last two months.”
Deborah added, “We know there are 31 koalas that have been killed in Port Macquarie, but I think that is not a high enough number.”
Experts believe many koalas escaped the bushfires, but the problems don’t end there.
Even if the koalas managed to survive the bush fires, they are left with little habitat and finding food or permanent habitat would be hard for them as trees with eucalyptus take a number of months to grow again.
Deborah is now calling the Prime Minister of Australia to enact the Koala Protection act.
Deborah said, “They are equivalent to the Great Barrier Reef. Everyone wants to touch a koala, so you would think the government would want to do something to save them.”
Deborah added, “The plight of the Koala now falls on the Prime Minister’s shoulders.”
Last week, NASA released a statement on their website and said that nearly 68 bushfires are still raging in New South Wales.
Over 70 fires are still burning in Queensland.
The statement said, “The state of New South Wales (NSW) in south-eastern Australia is continuing to experience devastating bushfires due to the dry tinder-like atmosphere in the territory: high winds, dry lightning, and continuing heat.”
Since September this year, nearly 1.1 million hectares of forest have burned.