{"id":2880,"date":"2021-10-05T16:06:26","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T06:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2880"},"modified":"2021-10-11T16:08:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-11T06:08:33","slug":"akf-highlights-koala-decline-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2880","title":{"rendered":"AKF highlights koala decline crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) has released alarming\nfigures showing our nation\u2019s most loved creature is in rapid decline. Since\n2018, there has been an estimated 30 per cent decline in koalas across\nAustralia, with populations estimated to be between 32,065 to 57,920 down from\n45,745 to 82,170 in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AKF has invested millions of dollars and 30 years of\nresearch into the creation of the Koala Habitat Atlas, and periodically they\nrevise the koala population. The AKF is the first organisation to estimate koala\nnumbers in each of the 128 federal electorates that have, or did have, koalas\nsince white settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The numbers released show a disturbing trend:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>A 30 per cent decline in total koala population\nsince 2018. NSW is worst with a 41 per cent decline<\/li><li>The koala is now extinct in 47 electorates and only\none electorate, Mayo, has more than 5000 koalas.<\/li><li>Every region across Australia saw a decline in\npopulation \u2013 there were no upward trends.<\/li><li>Some regions have remaining populations\nestimated to be as small as just 5-10 koalas.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Chair of the Australian Koala Foundation, Deborah Tabart\nOAM, said she is hoping Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley will take\nnotice of these numbers and get on with her job of protecting the koalas\u2019\nhabitat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEach and every federal politician in these electorates\nshould now be on notice to protect not only the koalas in their electorate but\nthe habitat that remains. The good news is that in many cases there is good\nhabitat left. Now is the time to get into action and get them full again. That\nis what koala recovery looks like,\u201d Tabart said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe terrible bushfires of 2019\/20 of course contributed to\nthis outcome, however, they are certainly not the only reason we are seeing koala\npopulations on the decline. We have witnessed a drastic decrease in inland\npopulations because of drought, heat waves, and lack of water for koalas to\ndrink. I have seen some landscapes that look like the moon \u2013 with dead and\ndying trees everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLand clearing is lethal to koala populations. Over the past\nfew years, we have seen huge land clearance particularly across NSW and southeast\nQueensland, for farming, housing development and mining. We know that offsets\ndon\u2019t work, and we also know that displaced koalas die. Urgent action to stop\nland clearing in prime koala habitat is required if we are to save our beloved\nnational animal from peril. We need a Koala Protection Act now which can and\nwill do exactly that; why won\u2019t our political leaders just sign that into\nbeing?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) has released alarming figures showing our nation\u2019s most loved creature is in rapid decline. Since 2018, there has been an estimated 30 per cent decline in koalas across Australia, with populations estimated to be between 32,065 to 57,920 down from 45,745 to 82,170 in 2018. AKF has invested millions of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2128,1669,596,2250,960,113],"class_list":["post-2880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decline","tag-endangered","tag-endangered-species","tag-koala-habitat","tag-koalas","tag-news-2"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":403,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":403,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"The Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) has released alarming figures showing our nation\u2019s most loved creature is in rapid decline. Since 2018, there has been an estimated 30 per cent decline in koalas across Australia, with populations estimated to be between 32,065 to 57,920 down from 45,745 to 82,170 in 2018. AKF has invested millions of dollars and 30 years of..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pexels-ethan-brooke-2122408-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"full":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pexels-ethan-brooke-2122408.jpg",3072,3840,false]},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"2128":{"name":"decline","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=decline"},"1669":{"name":"endangered","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=endangered"},"596":{"name":"endangered species","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=endangered-species"},"2250":{"name":"koala habitat","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=koala-habitat"},"960":{"name":"koalas","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=koalas"},"113":{"name":"news","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=news-2"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pexels-ethan-brooke-2122408-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"cvmm-medium":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pexels-ethan-brooke-2122408.jpg",240,300,false],"cvmm-medium-plus":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pexels-ethan-brooke-2122408.jpg",166,207,false],"cvmm-portrait":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pexels-ethan-brooke-2122408.jpg",400,500,false],"cvmm-medium-square":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pexels-ethan-brooke-2122408.jpg",480,600,false],"cvmm-large":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pexels-ethan-brooke-2122408.jpg",819,1024,false],"cvmm-small":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pexels-ethan-brooke-2122408.jpg",76,95,false],"full":["https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/pexels-ethan-brooke-2122408.jpg",3072,3840,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2882,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions\/2882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}