How Much Can A Koala Bear?
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Photo by Regina Bermes/laif Germany
According to environmental activists, the koala, a marsupial native to the eastern states of Australia, will be extinct within fifteen years as a result of the rapid urbanisation that is destroying their habitat. The Australian Koala Foundation reports that
a survey of 1,000 Koala habitats found thirty percent no longer had a koala in them and sixty percent had suffered widespread destruction.
Furthermore, whereas there was an estimated seven to ten million koalas in Australia prior to white settlement in 1788, there are now a hundred thousand. And despite there being no natural predator of the koala, about four thousand are killed each year by dogs and cars.
The complete article can be found on the Planet Ark website. For more information, contact the Australian Koala Foundation.