It has been a horrific seven days for the struggling koala population of New South Wales. Three hundred or more koalas are feared dead as deadly wildfires torched an important colony.
The fires continue to burn. Read more here in this diary by Lefty Coaster.
More than 850,000 hectares of land in New South Wales have been razed since the start of this year's unprecedented bushfire season. A hectare is 107,639 square feet, or about 2.5 acres.
Koala experts were warning as early as last Wednesday that the fires could have catastrophic effects on the important colony of koalas in the Lake Innes Nature Preserve near Port Macquarie. (See map.)
The Guardian reported that the blaze had likely originated with a lightning strike near Port Macquarie, which is also home to the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital. By Tuesday, it had already burned more than 2,000 hectares, including the Nature Preserve.
The Port Macquarie Koala hospital president, Sue Ashton, said the feared loss was a “tragedy.”
“The beauty of this particular population is that it’s so genetically diverse that it’s of national significance,” she said.
“A lot of the koalas are being mixed and crossbred now ... so to lose a large part of that population is very devastating.”
Ashton said while the hospital’s trained rescuers would be unable to search for surviving koalas until Thursday or Friday, she feared the worst as koalas were “terrible” at coping in a bushfire scenario.
The Guardian (
Warning:
ALL links in this diary contain graphic information that is hard to read.)
By then, the hospital, which can house up to 40 koalas, had called in more than 150 volunteers to deal with the expected influx of injured animals.
On Thursday, wildlife researchers finally able to visit some of the area destroyed by the fire, but were only able to locate two living koalas in a search of about 100 hectares
“It is a known koala breeding ground for the Port Macquarie region [and] the area we are most concerned about is a high density koala population,” the Port Macquarie Koala hospital president, Sue Ashton, told Guardian Australia.
“It is still burning and we probably won’t be able to access it until Saturday at the earliest [but] from our data crunching and based on a 60% mortality rate we will probably lose about 350 koalas.
The koala is already listed as vulnerable in NSW and the animal has been threatened by urbanisation and habitat destruction. Such a significant loss of habitat is a hammer blow to the species.
Today:
The number of rescued koalas from fire-hit regions around Port Macquarie has jumped to 16 as wildlife supporters scour key areas that were some of the best habitat for the marsupials in the state.
As many as 350 koalas are estimated to have died in the fires at the Lake Innes Nature Reserve, according to Koala Conservation Australia President Sue Ashton.
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The reserve, which was home to a colony of as many as 600 koalas, lost most of its habitat last week. Strong winds again hampered fire-fighting efforts in the area on Friday night.
Sydney Morning Herald
The few koalas found so far are receiving care for catastrophic burns at the Koala Hospital.
Sue Ashton said the recovery period could take anywhere between six to nine months.
"It really depends on the koala," she said.
While the koalas currently in care are expected to make a full recovery, it will be months before they can be returned to where they were found.
At present, there is nowhere for them to go.
Ms Ashton said they would need to wait for the food supply to rejuvenate before the koalas could be released.
"We will still try and release them exactly where we found them because koalas live in populations and they need to stay in that area where that population is," she said.
ABC News Australia
The Hospital has set up an emergency fund: Donate Here.
Koalas are already in significant trouble due to climate changes and urbanization, which are destroying their habitat.
No one knows for sure how many are left. What we do know is that koala numbers are falling as the eucalyptus forests they live in and feed on are cut down to make way for cities and farms. Habitat loss is the biggest threat, as it is to most wildlife.
There is no danger of koalas going extinct in Australia overall, says biologist Christine Adams-Hosking of the University of Queensland, who has studied the marsupials’ plight. “But at the rate of habitat clearing that is going on, we are going to see increased local population extinctions,” she says.
It is already having a big impact, says Adams-Hosking, causing some populations to decline 80 per cent. Koalas can’t cope with day after day of temperatures above 36°C, as has been happening in the west of the country during the many recent heatwaves. Extreme droughts are also harming the eucalyptus trees they feed on.
A world without koalas is not one I want to imagine.