Australia is fast losing one of its best loved symbols, the koala. While millions of these shy, sleepy-looking animals used to inhabit the wilds of east Australia, there may be only 100,000 left. Koalas have been protected from hunting for seventy years but they haven't been protected from the expanding human population. Australia's ethos of clearing the untamed land has decimated the koals's favorite gum tree. Bush fires earlier this year further devastated the population. Wihtout effective action now, wild koalas will have vanished by the year 2010.
April 12, 2006
The Vanishing Koala
Australia is fast losing one of its best loved symbols, the koala. While millions of these shy, sleepy-looking animals used to inhabit the wilds of east Australia, there may be only 100,000 left. Koalas have been protected from hunting for seventy years but they haven't been protected from the expanding human population. Australia's ethos of clearing the untamed land has decimated the koals's favorite gum tree. Bush fires earlier this year further devastated the population. Wihtout effective action now, wild koalas will have vanished by the year 2010.
