Hospital supervisor
Cheyne Flanagan (left)
treats a patient1778
European
colonisation
begins with the
arrival of the
First Fleet.1814
The koala is given
the scientific name Phascolarctos
cinereus, meaning ‘ash-grey
pouched bear’, by French and
German naturalists.1798
John Price becomes
the first European to
record koalas during
an expedition to the
Blue Mountains.1802
First evidence of koala
obtained when a French
explorer swaps spears
and a tomahawk for two
koala feet.1803
The first whole
koala specimens
are captured.KOALA TIMELINE SINCE EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT
urbanisation. And in the past 10 years, koala numbers have
fallen by an estimated 64 per cent.
Massive land clearance – for urban development,
agriculture and mining – reduces and fragments koala
habitat. And this means the animals spend more time on
the ground travelling between increasingly small pockets
of viable food trees. “We get them crossing roads and
rail lines trying to find remnant patches of habitat and
getting hit,” explains Christine Adams-Hosking, a koala
specialist from the University of Queensland. “And in
urban areas they cut through back yards where they can
come into conflict with dogs. An attack is often fatal for
koalas, causing a puncture wound to the lungs or other
major organ. Up in central Queensland we’ve seen a
dramatic decline in the population around one country
road that has become a mining freeway, resulting in
significant roadkill.”
Land clearance is certainly not a new issue in Australia- since European settlement, approximately 80 per cent of
eucalypt forests have been lost. Koalas have very specific
nutritional needs, which must be served by a small number
ABOVE LEFT:
visitors are also
given full access
to treatment at the
Currumbin Wildlife
Sanctuary, another
koala hospitalABOVE: the koala’s
specially adapted
liver makes it
difficult to get drug
doses rightWhile the koala being listed as ‘Vulnerable’ is
seen as a key success, Deborah Tabart from
the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) wants
her government to go further, inspired by the
USA’s Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940.
“How would people view Australia if we lost one of our
key national species?” she asks. “I am campaigning for a
koala protection act, based on the piece of legislation that
saved the American bald eagle. Americans realised that
the species was on the way out, but it was a symbol of
the nation. The bird was pictured on uniforms and military
badges, and the population understood that they couldn’t
afford to lose such an iconic national species.“
With advice from US lawyers, the AKF has outlined
a bill that could give koalas the best chance of survival.
“Most of all the act has to protect habitat,” she says. “We
now have a list of vital koala trees across the landscape.
Our bill would say that if these trees were present, then
activity by developers or the mining industry would not be
allowed, unless it could be proved to be benign.”
http://www.savethekoala.comKOALA PROTECTION ACT
From left: Alamy; Mary Evans/AlamyKOALAS