The Declining Koala Population

The recent fires in eastern Australia have put the future of koalas in danger. Although efforts have been made to rehydrate the koalas and bring them to safety, the future of this species remains uncertain. 

In 2019, eastern Australia faced “record low rainfall,” resulting in devastating wildfires, spanning “hundreds of thousands of hectares and destroying hundreds of properties.”

Wildfires are not the only threats to these marsupials. While evolution has allowed them to withstand the fires, they cannot adapt to environmental changes. According to The New York Times, “The animals are facing new threats from human development, which has dislocated local populations and impaired their ability to survive fires, as well as climate change.” 

Climate change has a big effect on koalas’ health. One key reason is the damage that climate change does to their food source. Koalas depend on eucalyptus leaves for nutrition, but high CO2 levels affect the nutrition of these leaves. According to “Koalas and Climate Change,” koalas cannot compensate for this lack of nutrition by eating more because their guts have limited capacity to expand. In addition, an increase in consumption of eucalyptus leaves would “cause them to pass more quickly through the koala’s digestive system, resulting in less thorough digestion and decreased nutrient uptake.” A second reason why koalas have trouble adapting to environmental change is that their “potential for adaptation is also limited by the low levels of genetic variation within their populations.” In other words, koalas are limited when it comes to procreation.

Here is a breakdown of animal extinction. First, there is “functionally extinct”—this refers to “a species that no longer plays a role in an ecosystem or that is on its way to extinction, possibly irremovably.” According to World Wildlife Fund, “vulnerable” means that the species faces “a high risk of extinction,” and “endangered” means the species faces “a very high risk of extinction in the wild.”

Acccording to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, koalas are not endangered, but they have the potential to go extinct. Estimating how many koalas are left in the world is nearly impossible and varies by region; however, in some regions, the koala population has dropped around 80%. The Australian Koala Foundation stated that there are believed to be fewer than 80,000 koalas left in Australia.

With the trouble koalas are facing, the world must wait and watch what happens to the national symbol of Australia and how its population will drop.

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