Reuters AlertNet Lite - Bushfires threaten major Australian koala colony

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Bushfires threaten major Australian koala colony

04 Dec 2006 00:08:34 GMT
Source: Reuters

CANBERRA, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Bushfires may have wiped out one of the last remaining outposts of healthy Australian koalas, scientists and animal rescue experts said on Monday.

Park rangers and specialist rescue teams from Sydney's Taronga Zoo have been searching for two days for surviving koalas in a vast tract of bushland in which wildfires have been burning uncontrolled for more than two days.

"The fear is that koalas can't really move fast along the ground to get away from the fires and unfortunately many probably will have been killed," a Taronga Zoo spokeswoman told Reuters.

The fires are burning in the Pilliga scrub nature reserve, 350 km (217 miles) northwest of Sydney, which is home to one of Australia's most genetically diverse koala colonies.

"The Pilliga scrub contains thousands of koalas and is one of the healthiest colonies in genetic terms," the zoo spokeswoman said. "The hope is that some will have been able to break across firebreaks."

Australia's koala population is estimated in the hundreds of thousands and although not threatened nationally, individual colonies are under threat from urbanisation and disease.

Koala numbers in recent years have been hit hard by disease, especially chlamydia, as well loss of habitat through logging and attacks by introduced feral animals.

Koalas need large areas of connected native forest to survive and travel long distances along corridors of their preferred food, eucalyptus trees, to search out territory and mates.

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Last updated:Mon Dec 4 00:09:23 2006