You’d be lucky to see one: Koala listed as ‘vulnerable’ by Australia government
By Saffron Howden
1 May 2012 IN THE absence of any exact figure, Gunnedah’s koala population is best measured by the number spotted on the three kilometre drive from town to the local sanctuary. Five years ago, three or four sightings were not uncommon. Now, ”you’d be lucky” to see one, says Nancy Small, who has been tending to injured koalas for three decades in Australia’s ”koala capital”.
”The population’s changed because they’re spreading out more,” said Mrs Small, 64, who runs Waterways Wildlife Park. ”You don’t see as many as you used to see.” Yesterday koalas were listed as ”vulnerable” across NSW, Queensland and the ACT under federal environment law after decades of population decline. They were listed as endangered in Hawks Nest and Tea Gardens, as well as Pittwater in Sydney. In the 20 years to 2010, their estimated number in NSW plummeted from 31,400 to 21,000, a decline of 33 per cent. North of the border, the drop was more dramatic – 43 per cent to 167,000. In Gunnedah, now at the centre of a large and expanding mining district on the Liverpool Plains, one study by ecological consultant David Paull found the koala population had fallen from 15,000 in the early to mid-90s to between 500 and 2000. Mrs Small said the extreme heat during the recent drought had affected koalas, while dogs and cars were also regular sources of injury and death. […]
