SYDNEY - Australian environmentalists have appealed to the Australian government to take drastic interventions to save the koala population after the death of thousands of specimens in the wave of fires, which in the height of an unprecedented drought devastated their habitats in the past months.
Testifying in an investigation by the New South Wales parliament on the population and habitats of koalas, the representative of the Australian WWF Stuart Blanch argued that from the status of 'vulnerable' the symbolic animal of Australia "is headed for extinction" and should be added to the national list of endangered species. "It would not surprise me, based on the data collected, if the number of koalas lost due to the drought and then the fires reached 10,000," he stressed.
Australian National University biologist Kara Youngentob said in parliament that conservationists' ability to respond to the crisis has been compromised by poor knowledge of how the koala population responds to fires. And according to MEP of the Greens, Cate Faehrmann, who chairs the investigation, "the fires have been an alarm signal, which is putting increasing pressure on the government to do much more, starting with protecting the koala habitat from threats like tree felling and urban development ".
