CURRENT SITUATION
Results
from the AKF's Koala Habitat Atlas deliver a grim picture about the status of
koala populations in all regions studied so far. Available habitat was found to
be fragmented and degraded, and in many areas of suitable habitats, the koalas
themselves were found to be absent. The AKF believes that the national wild
koala population has dropped to less than 100,000, a far cry from the millions
which were shot in the 1920's for their furs. At the present rate of destruction
of habitat, and with up to 4,000 koalas presently being killed each year by cars
and dogs, it is obvious that time is running out. Action is needed now to halt
this alarming decline in koala numbers.
The distribution of
the Koala is dependent upon the distribution of suitable habitat. It is
difficult to know what koala distribution was prior to the time of European
settlement. However, it is known that at that time eucalypt forests covered much
of the east coast of Australia and they would have provided a large habitat
resource for koalas. While present knowledge of the Koala's ranging behavior
tells us that they would not have been evenly distributed over that range, their
potential distribution would have been far greater than it is today.
Since then, enormous
areas of land have been cleared for farmland, towns and cities, and further
areas have been devastated by drought, dieback (disease) and bushfires. It is
estimated that roughly four fifths of original koala habitat has already been
destroyed, and today koalas are distributed mostly in isolated populations over
their remaining habitat.
In South Australia,
where koalas were hunted to extinction, and in Victoria where this very nearly
happened, authorities have relocated animals from islands to repopulate these
states. Koala numbers have increasesd, but Man's interference has caused new
problems such as inbreeding and overpopulation in some areas.