Koala at Risk for Extinction, Group Says

Dec. 11, 2008 -- Australia's iconic koala will become extinct in some areas of the country if the federal government does not take urgent action, conservationists have warned.

A group of Australian scientists will meet with government officials in Canberra on Friday in a bid to hammer out a national koala conservation strategy to keep key populations of the animals from dying out.

Less than 100,000 koalas are left in the country, compared to millions before they were heavily hunted for fur in the 1920s, said Deborah Tabart from the Australian Koala Foundation.

"The population of koalas in southeast Queensland has decreased from 10,000 to less than 4,000 in a decade," Tabart said.

The population in the southeast Queensland area known as the Koala Coast has fallen by at least 26 percent to 4,611 animals since a 1996-1999 survey as development encroached on their natural habitats, she said.

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"We know that there are even less now, in the order of 3,800," Tabart said.

Kat Miller of the World Wildlife Fund also warned that koalas could be on their way to extinction along with several other Australian species.

The Australian Koala Foundation is urging Environment Minister Peter Garrett to declare the southeast Queensland koala population as critically endangered under law in a bid to protect their habitats from further developments.

"This is the most important thing Minister Garrett and his department can do right now to show he is serious about saving the koala," said Tabart.

Climate change has also played in the decline as it altered the nutritional make-up of their staple food, gumtree leaves, Tabart said.