03 Track 3

Unit 11

Wildlife

Conservation

Chapter 1

The Raised to Rescue Koalas

Page 189

The Race to Rescue Koalas

It’s two in the morning and a koala is caught in the fence. Megan Aiken, who runs a volunteer organization that rescues wild koalas, looks at the frightened animal and pulls on heavy leather gloves.

Despite their cute, stuffed-animal appearance, koalas can be ferocious when caught. Aiken places a wire cage on the ground and opens up a thick blanket. Then she and two other rescuers quickly get to work.

One volunteer throws the blanket over the animal, both to calm it and to protect the rescuers from its teeth and claws. The other opens the lid of the cage. Aiken then firmly grasps the koala through the blanket, freeze it from the fence, and puts it in the cage.

If this koala were sick or injured, they would take it to the Australia Zoo wildlife Hospital. But the animal is healthy. They must release it somewhere nearby, since koalas have a home range and feed in the same trees over and over.

They take the animal to a nearby park that borders an area of open land. They set the cage down, open its door, and the koala runs up the tree and disappears. “Good luck, little one,” Aiken says.

But it will take a lot more than lock.

The koala, symbol of Australia and one of the most beloved animals on the planet, is in crisis. Before Europeans settled in Australia more than two centuries ago, about 10 million koalas lived in the East Coast, eucalyptus forests.

Hunted for their fur, koalas nearly became extinct in the southern half of their territory. In the northern half, a million were killed in 1919 alone. By 1927, only tens of thousands remained.

Koala numbers slowly rose through the next half-century, in part due to a nationwide hunting ban in the 1930s and government efforts to relocate them.

Then urbanization began to take its toll. Habitat was lost and diseases spread. With urbanization came the threat of domestic dogs and busy highways.

Since 1990, when about 430,000 koalas inhabited Australia, their numbers have plummeted. Current population estimates vary from a low of 44,000 to a high of 300,000.

“Koalas are getting caught in fences and dying, being killed by dogs, struck by vehicles, even dying simply because a homeowner cut down several eucalyptus trees in his backyard,” says Deidre de Villiers, one of the chief koala researchers at the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management.

For 15 years, de Villiers has been monitoring koala populations, studying the reasons for their decline, and creating guidelines to make development more koala-friendly.

De Villiers insists that koalas and humans can coexist in urban environments “if developers get on board with koala sensitive designs,” such as lower speed limits for streets, green corridors for koala movement, and most especially, preserving every precious eucalyptus tree.

Unfortunately, koalas have another problem that threatens their survival. “Disease is the other huge issue, says veterinarian John Hanger. Hanger has discovered that as much as half of Queensland’s koala population may be affected by a single disease.

Afflicted koalas may go blind and females may become infertile. In some quality populations, this is caused infertility in more than 50 percent of mature females.

“Koala populations that used to be vibrant and sustainable are becoming extinct,” says Hanger, who blames the government. “Queensland has failed miserably to do anything meaningful about the decline.

The federal government needs to get involved and do it properly, listing the koala as vulnerable to extinction.” This might save the last remnants of critical koala habitat, he argues.

A recent report presented to the Australian government has made several recommendations to save the koalas, including listing the animals as threatened, and vulnerable, funding a program to monitor quality populations, mapping their habitat, and managing lands to protect the koalas.

Until these things happen, the efforts of people like Megan Aiken and Deirdre de Villiers will be crucial in helping to regenerate the ailing koala population.

Deidre de Villiers takes the koalas’ plight personally. Visitors to her home discover that she is a respected koala researcher by day the koala parent by night. She is caring for five koalas at once.

Every other day she goes out to cut and collect eucalyptus leaves, the koalas’ primary food. During the past 12 years, she has cared for more than 60 animals.

One day, using a radio tracking, device, she goes out to find Tee Vee, a wild koala she has been monitoring for more than a year. After Tee Vee is caught and gently put to sleep, de Villiers gets to work.

She measures everything from the length of the koala’s body to the width of her skull, the size of her teeth to the softness of her fur. Weight and general health are also noted.

“I think she has a baby,” de Villiers says suddenly. De Villiers then slips her finger into the pouch, opens it, and delicately brings out the tiny, blind, furless baby. She deftly examines it for any signs of disease, and then softly pushes the baby back inside the sleeping mother.

“While there are still healthy babies, there’s still hope,” she whispers.