Koalas extinct in 20 years
May 01, 2007 12:00
KOALAS are likely to be extinct in urban areas within 20 years, and humans are largely to blame, a researcher has warned.

The marsupials are being killed off by cars, dogs and a dwindling habitat, Gail Gipp, wildlife hospital manager at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast hinterland, said today.

Ms Gipp said the brigalow belt forests of inland and eastern Queensland were disappearing at an alarming rate with up to 21 football fields a day cleared for farming until broadscale clearing of vegetation was phased out in the state the end of last year.

About 19,000 koalas died each year in the brigalow belt, she said.

"If we don't wake up to ourselves and local councils don't wake up to themselves and we stop looking at the almighty dollar and look at the animals around us, we are going to lose our animal icons in 20 years,'' Ms Gipp said from Blackbutt in south-east Queensland.

"There's no ifs, or buts, but when.''

Researchers from the wildlife hospital and Wildlife Warriors - founded by Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, who died last year - are tracking 12 male koalas, fitted with radio collars in the area.

Ms Gipp said the koalas would be traced in the first phase of the project over the coming weeks, with field work continuing until at least the start of September.

"We are actually releasing some hand-raised animals and also some animals that have come in some time ago due to some large scale injury or illness,'' she said.

"There have been studies done in urban areas before on the success of hand-raising koalas and we are doing this study in a rural area.

"So we are hoping to see there is definitely a reason for releasing koalas back into rural areas, rather than releasing them into urban areas where their lifespan might not be as long.''

Ms Gipp said male koalas had it particularly tough, leaving their mothers at an early age and having to compete with other males for territory and females.

"They come to grief a lot more often because they have to travel much further afield than what they would normally have to do,'' she said.