Seemorerocks: Koalas are functionally extinct

Thursday 6 June 2019

Koalas are functionally extinct

Some things just BREAK YOUR HEART. I've held one in my arms. This is very hard to bear

KOALAS DECLARED FUNCTIONALLY EXTINCT

Sam Carana, Via Facebook

The Australian Koala Foundation has declared koalas officially “functionally extinct”. According to fossil records, Koalas are native to Australia and have been living there for at least 30 million years. The Australian Koala Foundation thinks that no more than 80,000 Koalas are left in Australia. Deborah Tabart, who chairs the Australian Koala Foundation, adds: "This is approximately 1% of the 8 million Koalas that were shot for fur and sent to London between 1890 and 1927”.

Next to getting killed by people and dogs, there is habitat loss. Koalas live in the eucalyptus forest and they eat eucalyptus leaves. As more eucalyptus trees get cut down and as the number and size of roads, cities and farms grows, these forests get divided into ever smaller patches. Once the distance between patches becomes too large, Koalas can no longer travel from one patch of forest to another. As numbers in a particular patch of forest fall below a critical level, the Koalas become prone to inbreeding and thus more vulnerable to disease.

Diseased koalas are treated with antibiotics, but the koalas often lose weight and die even after receiving treatment. Research suspects that drugs meant to save the koalas might be upsetting the balance of their gut diversity and interfering with their ability to digest eucalyptus leaves, which contain a compound called tannin that can be highly toxic if it isn't broken down by certain types of gut bacteria, and if those microbes are absent, koalas might be unable to process the eucalyptus leaves.

Furthermore, climate change-driven droughts and heat waves are causing dehydration and heat stress, leading to organ failure and premature death of Koalas. This dire situation makes that Koalas have now been declared to be officially “functionally extinct”, since it seems unlikely that Kaolas will be able to survive for long.