Tue, 10 Nov 2009 8:42p.m.
Australian koalas are suffering from a rapid population decline due to climate change and might be in danger of extinction, according to researchers.
The Australian Koala Foundation said that the number of koalas "could be as low as 43,000", down from the millions at the time European settlement started in the late 1700s.
"I just don't believe our governments want to protect koalas at a national level, at a federal government level, I think it scares them," Deborah Tabart, CEO Australia Koala Foundation, said.
In 2006, the government's Threatened Species Committee said local population declines did not necessarily mean the koalas were reducing across the whole country and that they were "resilient" enough to live in small or fragmented habitats.
However, according to Peter Garrett, Australia's Environment Minister, the committee is going to decide about the case once again during their next year's session.
New South Wales has classified Koalas as a vulnerable species under the State Conservation Act, and endangered in two areas.
Queensland lists the animal as vulnerable in some parts of the state.
The majority of koalas hug a stretch of eastern coastline in the states of Queensland and New South Wales.
They are most abundant on the so-called Koala Coast, a 375sqkm swath of semi-rural coast in south eastern Queensland.
A 2008 survey of the Koala Coast by the Queensland government shows the population dropped 64 percent, from more than 6,200 in 1999 to about 2,800.
APTN