AUSTRALIA: KOALAS FUNCTIONALLY EXTINCT AFTER FIRES DESTROY 80 PERCENT OF HABITAT

[shenmue]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2019/11/23/koalas-functionally-extinct-after-australia-bushfires-destroy-80-of-their-habitat/

[cilla4progress]

1. Please

say it isn't so!!!

[mercuryblues]

2. So sad

[Beringia]

3. I don't think they will go extinct

They can repopulate the areas when the eucalyptus trees come back.


A GoFundMe for them has raised over 1 million dollars for Port Macquarie Koala Hospital.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-thirsty-koalas-devastated-by-recent-fires

I read there were 40 kangaroos found dead near the ocean after fleeing the fire. I guess they drown.

https://www.ladbible.com/news/animals-news-dozens-of-dead-kangaroos-spotted-on-australian-beach-after-bushfire-20190823

[IndyOp]

6. How long does it take eucalyptus to come back? How will

the health of kala populations after inbreeding that will happen if they have to be supported in enclosed habitats for their own rotection?

Nothing that we could count on in past can be counted on in future - nothing.

[Zambero]

14. Eucalypts are fire-adapted species

When forests of those species burn, many of the mature trees will develop new sprouts along the length of the tree bole, known as "adventitious branches". In time the trees will develop new crowns. Whether or not this adaptive recovery strategy benefits koalas as well as eucalyptus seems uncertain, given the extent of habitat degradation. One would certainly hope so.

[Rstrstx]

21. Yes many are, but koalas don't live in the zones most affected by fire

Koalas are absent in Western Australia and much of the mallee country of southern Australia, regions where fire dictates the ecology. I've been to a few areas of their habitat, they were beautiful dry forests in slightly hilly parts of Queensland that normally don't burn as severely or often as the country to the west. Koalas can't afford to stop eating for several months until the foliage grows back out and are too slow to escape a quickly moving fire. If fires start becoming more frequent as modeling predicts it is going to contract their suitable range and, worse, could alter the entire ecology of a large portion of what is really a lovely part of the Australian continent.

[NickB79]

11. The eucalyptus aren't coming back

Australia's climate is shifting just like California's as the planet warms, and farmers and ranchers are hard at work clearing the surviving forests.

[Beringia]

12. That's awful. I can't imagine Australia not taking care of its koalas

But I don't know their conservation record.

[Aquaria]

16. I'd start imagining it.

Their PM is an evil scumbag who thinks climate change is a hoax. He's done nothing or close to it to prevent disasters like this from happening now or in the future. Not when there's a filthy dollar to make off destroying the land.

Bet he thinks this is a great opportunity for some kind of land grab.

[Thyla]

23. Yes they will

Fire is an important part of the way eucalyptus regenerate and most other Australian native plants.

Also I call be on the whole headline to begin with, plenty of koalas left elsewhere in the country. Not that its not a absolute disaster but they are nowhere near extinct yet.

[NickB79]

24. Low-level fires were an essential part of many forests. These aren't low-level fires

Just like the US West is experiencing, these are mega-fires. Canopy-burning, soil-sterilizing, forest killers. Modern forests have never evolved with them.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/08/150809-wildfires-forest-fires-climate-change-science/

[Thyla]

25. This is in regards to the USA though...

Australian flora has evolved with these type of fires since practically forever and as a result they have some pretty cool adaptations to help them survive or at the least set the next generation of trees. Some species are fire dependent to set their seed.
The areas burnt out will recover splendidly, the wildlife probably not so much.

http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/units/env207/ecology/individual.html

[TheBlackAdder]

4. I wasn't depressed 20 minutes ago.

[SWBTATTReg]

5. Wow. A tragedy indeed. I'm sure that they'll come up with effective solutions, after all,

hasn't Australia been victim of such fires, drought, etc. for millions of years?

[SunSeeker]

7. OMG

[sakabatou]

8. :(

[Liberty Belle]

9. Maybe they should fly some to San Diego, which has eucalyptus trees & a zoo with koalas

doing very well here. There is also the SD Zoo Safari park where they could create a preserve for koalas or something...

Eucalyptus trees were brought here in the 1800s for railway ties until they figured out the wood didn't really work for that -- but there are plenty of eucalyptus trees all over here there could be harvested for koala food.

[Karadeniz]

10. Poor angels...devastating news.

[littlemissmartypants]

13. My heart breaks for them and the people caring for them.

It's clear that we are not prepared for the climate emergency we are facing. The process is ruthless and unpredictable. These poor sweet creatures are just one of the losses we are seeing as a result of our own reckless actions. I am sure there are many more creatures, great and small, that we can expect to be lost forever. It makes me feel so sad.

Thanks for the post, shenmue. ❤

[Aquaria]

15. I haz a sad now

Back in the old days, I was at San Diego Zoo when they had a koala hanging out in a eucalyptus tree, and you could get within touching distance of it. They had someone there to tell people to leave the poor thing alone, but they actually let us get that close (wonder we're not all dead...).

I'm sure the climate-change denier PM over there thinks this is an acceptable sacrifice, as long as he gets his filthy hands on enough money and power.

[StarryNite]

17. Awww Nooo

[AwakeAtLast]

18. .

[roamer65]

19. The Southern Hemisphere will see more drastic effects of warming first.

The Earth is about 2.5 million miles closer to the Sun at southern summer solstice in December.

As we increase the CO2 concentration, that 2.5 million miles will start to become very important.

By 2050, I expect most of Australia and Southern Africa will be uninhabitable.

[greyl]

20. Look

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[greyl]

22. Kick

[Baclava]

26. maybe not...'Koalas aren't functionally extinct, but they need our help'

Experts don't agree koalas are "functionally extinct" and it's not the bushfires that pushed them to the brink. The idea the species was in danger was broached long before bushfires began to slither across Australia.

"I do not believe koalas are functionally extinct - yet," says Rebecca Johnson, a koala geneticist at the Australian Museum. "That said, the fires are likely to have had a huge impact on what we know are some extremely valuable populations who are important for the long term survival of the species."

Following the initial declaration of "functional extinction" in May, Christine Adams-Hosking, a conservationist at the University of Queensland, penned an article for The Conversation outlining the fate of the koala in Australia. In it, Adams-Hosking made it clear the functional extinction tag had likely been applied with a little too much haste. In a study conducted in 2016, a collaboration of researchers attempted to quantify how many koalas were left, but it's a complex game.

"To determine whether each population of koalas scattered across eastern Australia is functionally extinct would require a gargantuan effort," wrote Adams-Hosking. It's incredibly difficult for scientists to get a full grasp on koala numbers across Australia, so categorizing the species as "functionally extinct" is difficult. Later, in a report from New Scientist, Adams-Hosking said "there are koalas all over the place and some of them are doing fine."

Jacquelyn Gill, a climate scientist at the University of Maine, commented on the new reports and suggested in a tweet that there may be conflicts of interest at play, with "a few cases ... of nonprofits reporting exaggerated population declines."

https://www.cnet.com/news/koalas-are-not-functionally-extinct-but-they-need-our-help/