THE Australian state of Victoria proudly boasts the most thriving population of Koalas living in the wild apart from Kangaroo Island in South Australia where their present population is outstripping the available food.

l  It was actually reported in an article published as recently as 2007, by the Victorian government Department of Sustainability and the Environment, that the koala population in that state was actually ‘large and thriving’.

l  The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service regarded the south east area of its state as ‘vulnerable’ whereas it regarded the koala population in the rest of Queensland as being ‘common’ or of ‘least concern wildlife’.

l  The New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service regards its koala population generally as ‘vulnerable’ but also noted that in different regions within the state the population was locally extinct whereas in others it could be regarded as secure.

l  The Australian Koala Foundation believes that the koala population in South Australia should be regarded as being ‘rare’ except of course in Kangaroo Island, where the species was introduced about 90 years ago, and now has a population of some 30,000 animals that are rapidly eating themselves out of  house and home.

Kangaroo Island

Koalas thrive on Kangaroo Island, off the coast of mainland South Australia, owing to the fact that the area has no predators and an inability to migrate to other areas.  A koala population requires a large area of healthy forest where it will travel long distances to find new foraging areas and mates.  This is not available to them on a small farming island such as Kangaroo Island.

Ecologists have claimed that the tree availability on Kangaroo Island can only sustain a koala population of around 10,000 as the over population now being experienced there is badly effecting other species such as birds and invertebrates let alone the Manna Gum which was once prolific on the island.  One specific species of Manna Gum has already been claimed to have been lost due to the over stripping of its leaves by the koala.

Efforts to relocate Kangaroo Island koalas back to the mainland have not been successful as they have lost the instinct to travel long distances to find fresh areas to forage in.  Other culling ideas have come under considerable opposition from the public but present thought seems to be favouring a sterilization program introduced into the animal via a dart fired by a wildlife officer on the ground.

Australia wide 

Although the Australian federal government considers the national koala population to number in the hundreds of thousands and the Australian Koala Foundation believes the figure to be nearer the 100,000 mark, other studies have claimed to true figure to be closer to 80,000.

The world body, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has noted the present koala population to be of ‘least concern’.  The Australian government does not consider the koala to be a ‘threatened’ species but the United States government does, according to the latest report from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

More recent koala history

Millions of koala furs were sold to European and American traders during the early 20^th century and because of this decimation of the species it has not yet fully recovered and to this day its long term sustainability remains vulnerable.

The most extensive killings took place in Queensland between 1915 and 1919 when over a million koalas were slaughtered with either guns, poisons or wire traps called nooses.  Many a koala that had been shot was left in the tree, irretrievable by the hunter, because of the animals’ strong instinct to cling tight when wounded.

This unmitigated slaughter brought about a tremendous public outcry at the time and the practice ceased but when the country was hit by the great drought between 1926 and 1928, a further 600,000 koalas were slaughtered, in just a one month declared open season, during August 1927.

Today’s threats

Habitat loss: The biggest threat to the koala today comes from their loss of habitat through Australia’s fast growing urbanization of its eastern coastline and nearby hills.  Unfortunately the same country favored by the koala is also the same areas desired by humans.  Despite the loss of forests in some of these areas the unwary koala is also subjected to dog attacks and motor car accidents.

Disease: Residing in closer proximity to that of humans has also exposed the koala to a disease that it was never prone to previously, that of Chlamydia.  This is a bacterial disease spread sexually among the animals.  Some colonies have been almost totally wiped out because of this illness.