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A koala sleeps on a eucalyptus tree on Phillip Island, Australia. ABS-CBN News/Joel Guinto, file

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koalas file 10152024

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:950px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1728965000587koalas-file-10152024.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="A koala sleeps on a eucalyptus tree on Phillip Island, Australia. ABS-CBN News/Joel Guinto, file"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">A koala sleeps on a eucalyptus tree on Phillip Island, Australia. <em>ABS-CBN News/Joel Guinto, file</em></span></span></span></div><p>SYDNEY — Clinging to a fluffy toy twice her size, orphaned koala joey Ajooni made a snuffling noise as she drank milk from a tiny syringe.</p><p>Weighing about the same as a mango, she was found by the side of a Sydney road where her mother was hit by a car and died.</p><p>It is a familiar tale for wildlife carer Emma Meadows.</p><p>Over the past two years, Meadows and other volunteers have recovered 40 koalas hit by cars in their neighborhood. The number left for dead is likely much higher.</p><p>Koalas are shy and notoriously difficult to count.</p><p>There are anywhere between 95,000 and 524,000 left in Australia, possibly down from millions before European settlement.</p><p>There is little doubt that expanding cities, land clearance and the spread of chlamydia are devastating the populations of one of Australia&#x27;s most iconic animals.</p><p>East Coast koalas were officially listed as &quot;endangered&quot; by the Australian government in 2022.</p><p>&quot;I actually, truly, believe we&#x27;re heading towards extinction,&quot; said Meadows, a volunteer with WIRES.</p><p>&quot;I don&#x27;t know if there is any coming back from this. I&#x27;m scared it&#x27;s too late.&quot;</p><p>Chlamydia was first observed in koalas about 50 years ago. In the decades since, it has wiped out entire local populations.</p><p>The bacteria leads to blindness, bladder infections, infertility, and death.</p><p>Although some chlamydia-free koala populations exist — such as the area where Ajooni was found — scientists fear these pockets may soon disappear.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/specials/threatened-species">SPECIAL REPORT: Making every species count</a></div><div><strong>World&#x27;s &#x27;extinction capital&#x27;</strong></div><p>Annabelle Olsson, director of the University of Sydney Wildlife Health and Conservation Hospital, has regularly examined rescued koalas — including seven-month-old Ajooni.</p><p>On the day AFP visited the center, a sedated three-year-old koala lay on an operation table, while Olsson and her team took the marsupial&#x27;s blood, did X-rays and examined the koala&#x27;s face.</p><p>The koala was chlamydia-free but had a head injury that impacted her reflexes and would require further attention.</p><p>Olsson said without better koala protections &quot;our grandchildren, or at least their grandchildren, are going to see maybe koalas in a zoo if they&#x27;re lucky&quot;.</p><p>&quot;Australia is an island nation with an incredibly high biodiversity and incredibly unique wildlife species and floral species that need to be preserved,&quot; she said.</p><p>Scientists believe Australia has the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world, with about 100 of the country&#x27;s unique flora and fauna species wiped out in the last 123 years.</p><p>Environment minister Tanya Plibersek has said Australia is &quot;the mammal extinction capital of the world. &quot;</p><p>While there are some rules and guidelines to protect koala habitats, koala bushland continues to be cleared.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/09/12/23/australia-logging-ban-to-create-koala-haven">RELATED: Australia logging ban to create koala haven</a></div><div><strong>Vaccine hopes</strong></div><p>Some have instead focused their conservation efforts on quelling the spread of koala chlamydia.</p><p>University of the Sunshine Coast researcher Samuel Phillips is part of a team working on a potential vaccine.</p><p>They have vaccinated and monitored 165 koalas over 10 years and found inoculated marsupials developed chlamydia later in life and their mortality was reduced by 64 percent.</p><p>A Queensland trial of the vaccination, used in conjunction with traffic and predator controls, was so successful that a local koala population doomed for extinction within 10 years rebounded.</p><p>Some marsupials will even need to be translocated to stop overpopulation, Phillips said.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s been a really positive story,&quot; he said.</p><p>However, Phillips warns that more needs to be done to address the other key drivers of koala decline, particularly the deforestation of their habitats.</p><p>&quot;We can keep protecting these small populations, but without increasing the habitat and protecting it, then they won&#x27;t be living.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/2/6/296-flora-fauna-species-in-mindanao-mountain-ranges-threatened-by-human-activities-1603">RELATED: 296 species in Mindanao mountain ranges threatened by human activities</a></div><div><strong>&#x27;Make a difference&#x27;</strong></div><p>Ajooni will remain in Meadow&#x27;s care until she is big enough to be released back into the wild.</p><p>It will be a &quot;bittersweet&quot; moment for Meadow, but she says seeing any koala successfully released is the best feeling.</p><p>That feeling is what keeps her going through the awful parts of her volunteer role: scraping dead koala bodies off the road in the middle of the night, or finding animals that are so severely injured that they need to be put down.</p><p>&quot;I continue to do what I do because somebody needs to make a difference, and I feel that this is one way in the world that I can make a difference,&quot; Meadows said.</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MOhJklpvaco?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>There is little doubt that expanding cities, land clearance and the spread of chlamydia are devastating the populations of one of Australia's most iconic animals.</p>

There is little doubt that expanding cities, land clearance and the spread of chlamydia are devastating the populations of one of Australia's most iconic animals.

Cars, chlamydia threaten Australian koalas

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Cars, chlamydia threaten Australian koalas

Agence France-Presse

Published Oct 15, 2024 12:05 PM PHT

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