Koalas listed as endangered species in Australia-
✅Once found in abundance, Australia’s much-loved koalas have now been officially classified as ‘endangered’ after widespread bushfires, drought and land clearing destroyed much of their eucalyptus-rich habitat.
✅The move of upgrading the conservation status of the marsupials from ‘vulnerable’ to ‘endangered’ in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory was taken based on the recommendation of the threatened species scientific committee.
● Australia’s Koala:
✅According to fossil records, Koala species have inhabited parts of Australia for at least 25 million years, a WWF report states.
✅But today, only one species remains — the Phascolarctos cinereus.
✅They are found in the wild in the southeast and eastern sides of Australia — in coastal Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.
✅Since Europeans first settled in the region, the Koala population has faced widespread habitat loss, particularly due to agriculture and the construction of urban settlements.
✅They survive on a strict diet of up to a kilogram of eucalyptus leaves every day.
✅Due to the low nutritional value of these leaves, koalas tend to sleep for extended periods, often up to 18 hours a day, to conserve energy.
● Why did the Australian government finally declare Koalas endangered?
✅Australia’s Koala population has been on the road to extinction for over two decades now.
✅The number of Koalas in NSW declined by between 33 per cent and 61 per cent since 2001, while in Queensland the Koala population decreased by at least half during the same period, according to a report by The Guardian.
✅But despite several demands by animal rights groups and conservationists, the government has been accused of doing little to protect the species.
✅Koalas were classified as “vulnerable” only in 2012.
✅During the catastrophic 2019 bushfires in Australia, now known as the ‘Black Summer’, an estimated 60,000 koalas were impacted, with vast swathes of their habitat being blackened and rendered unliveable. More than 12 million acres of land were destroyed across New South Wales alone.
✅Another major threat is the spread of chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease known to cause blindness and cysts in the koalas reproductive tract.
✅In 2020, a parliamentary inquiry in NSW found that Koalas would be extinct in the state by 2050 unless the government took urgent action.
● Threatened species:
✅The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species.
✅The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species was established in 1964.
✅It is a worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system.
✅It divides species into nine categories, of which the official term 'threatened is a subset of three categories: Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable:
✅1.Extinct (EX)
✅2.Extinct in the Wild (EW)
✅3.Critically Endangered (CR)
✅4.Endangered (EN)
✅5.Vulnerable (VU)
✅6.Near Threatened (NT)
✅7.Least Concern (LC)
✅8.Data Deficient (DD)
✅9.Not Evaluated (NE)