Devastating warning wild koala populations will NEVER recover from the ‘unprecedented’ bushfires that destroyed millions of hectares of habitat that’s killed at least 2,000
- An urgent hearing was held in parliament into the state’s koala population
- Experts said thousands of koalas died and a third of their habitat was destroyed
- An ecologist said there will be declines in koala populations from now on
It is feared that Australia’s wild koala population will never recover after devastating bushfires killed more than 2,000 and destroyed millions of hectares of native habitat.
An ecologist said on Monday that fires burning around New South Wales have razed koala habitats so extensively ‘we will probably never find the bodies’.
The NSW upper house inquiry held an urgent hearing into the state’s koala population and habitat after this season’s ‘unprecedented’ bushfires.
Some 90 fires continue to burn across the state, half of which uncontained.
A koala named Paul from Lake Innes Nature Reserve being treated for burns at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital
Thousands of hectares of koala habitat across northern NSW and south-east Queensland
Nature Conservation Council ecologist Mark Graham on Monday told the inquiry koalas in most instances ‘really have no capacity to move fast enough to get away’ from fast-moving crown fires.
‘We’ve lost such a massive swathe of known koala habitat that I think we can say without any doubt there will be ongoing declines in koala populations from this point forward,’ Mr Graham said.
‘The fires have burnt so hot and so fast that there has been significant mortality of animals in the trees, but there is such a big area now that is still on fire and still burning that we will probably never find the bodies,’ Mr Graham said.
The crown fires which have torn through broad expanses of NSW north-coast forest, a known biodiversity hotspot, were unprecedented.
Fire and Rescue NSW team rescue a Koala from fire in Jacky Bulbin Flat in November
Sharni the koala was one of many treated for burns during bushfires on the NSW north coast
North East Forest Alliance president and ecologist Dailan Pugh will later on Monday say more than 2000 koalas may have died in the fires, with up to one third of koala habitat on the state’s north coast lost.
Port Macquarie Koala Hospital president Sue Ashton in October estimated at least 350 koalas would have died in a bushfire in Crestwood, on the state’s mid-north coast, based on a predicted 60 per cent mortality rate.
More than 2,000 koalas have been killed in the unprecedented bushfires that ravaged NSW and Qld
Port Macquarie Koala Hospital’s clinical director Cheyne Flanagan (left) will give evidence at the NSW parliament’s upper house inquiry on Monday
Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, chair of the inquiry, on Sunday said the loss of koalas in NSW should be a catalyst for stronger conservation efforts.
‘Hearing that we have lost up to a third of koala habitat and more than 2,000 koalas on the north coast is utterly devastating and should be a wake-up call for this government,’ Ms Faehrmann said in a statement.
Port Macquarie Koala Hospital’s clinical director Cheyne Flanagan and indigenous fire practitioners are also due to give evidence, as well as representatives of the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.