Koalas are.... or aren't functionally extinct

You be the judge.

I think most people find koalas bears pretty damn cute and cuddly looking.
Many of us also know they live on eucalyptus only and are only found naturally in Australia.
What many of us may not know is the the devastating bush fires in Australia are gobbling up the habitat of the koalas, and killing many of them in the process.

However, the plight of the koalas goes beyond the fires.
Hunting and urbanization have been taking their toll for decades.

Read more:

The recent spate of bushfires play a role this decrease, but the bigger story is much more grim. Hunting, during the 1920s, killed hundreds of thousands of koalas. Urbanization has cut populations off from one another, lowering their genetic diversity and making them more prone to diseases like chlamydia. Habitat clearing has removed their food source.

www.cnet.com...

Over the weekend, social media users grew alarmed over reports that koalas are now “functionally extinct” following devastating wildfires. Turns out, the iconic Australian creature is not gone anywhere.

Unprecedented fires ripped through Queensland and New South Wales this month, killing six people and burning hundreds of thousands of hectares of land. Firefighters were battling a 6,000 kilometre-long front at one point, the Guardian reported.

nationalpost.com...

Doom porn or reality:

Koala bears have been declared “functionally extinct,” the Australian Koala Foundation reports. The fluffy marsupial is down to just 80,000 wild species members, meaning there aren’t enough breeding adults left to support another generation of the pouched mammals.

nypost.com...

It’s unfortunate they only live off of eucalyptus trees. As much as those trees have incredible oil in them, they are extremely flammable and a huge concern when bush fires start. Same problem with them in California fires.

So basically the cute koala’s only food source is also one of the reasons it’s going extinct because of the fires they contribute to.

aren't they kind of like pandas in the sense that they aren't like the best evolved to stay alive?

like deficient digestion or something? and i thought the eucalyptus get them all kinds of high but that may be wrong? and dont almost all of them have Chlamydia which i think is a small factor of them possibly dying out


www.youtube.com...

blogs.unimelb.edu.au...

Brain: Koalas have a ‘smooth’ brain. This means that they lack higher level recognition and understanding that many other animals have. If you gather a bunch of Eucalyptus leaves, which the koalas eat, and put them on a plate in front of the koala, the koala won’t know what to do with them; they just sit there and gawk at it. They lack the ability to discern that it’s still food given that the leaves have moved off the tree and onto a new source that they’re unfamiliar with. Another fun biproduct of their smooth brain is that koalas don’t really seem to understand what rain is. They will just sit in that rain wondering why they get wet until the rain passes.

sleeping 18-20 hours a day would make it kind of hard to flee fires too id imagine

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

This is pic from Bally's backyard to give you an idea how devastating for the koalas in the area it would have been, and it's not just the koalas that were getting decimated.



There's was a recent study into koala numbers in the northern rivers area and scientists were surprised at how many koalas were indeed out and about, many more than they previously thought.

I can't say how accurate these reports are in the op but can be sure any koalas caught out in the recent firestorm are toast, and the fires will continue burning until we get rain which doesn't look to be anytime soon.

I'm going to do a thread at some point soon about the devastation where bally lives, it's pretty full on decimation over a massive area.

a reply to: RalagaNarHallas

I don't know about their overall health, but do know they are very slow, and probably not the brightest of earth's creatures.

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

Thanks for the picture and info.
I hope you do that thread sooner rather than later.

I came across this tear jerker just today.

No clue why this won't embed so here is the link.
www.youtube.com...

Flawed creatures will always go extinct. It is how nature works.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

I would tend to agree that they are functionally extinct.

I live in an area where there is an endemic population. The problem is that their food source is bound by pine plantation forestry and farmland. They do not have the capacity to traverse this type of country, and should they try, they risk being attacked by domestic and wild dogs.

Sure it's a massive area that they exist in and it can support a reasonable population, but to be honest it's really just like an unfenced zoo for the koalas.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

I heard a news story if it is true that it was a child that started the fires?

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

No worries and will do.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

its a difficult issues because if you said what you;ve just ssain in this thread. the powers that should not be, will simply use it to exlcude personal enty into to the forests as a means to implement their desire to restict poples right to traveal.

Its in the Dr Richared day's talk - Everything is in place and none can stop us now, talk he gave in 1969.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

The koala’s have/will not contributed to their own deimise. there demeise will be cause almost completely by the actions of human beings in the form of a government that it not interested in preserving their habitat. Its not there fault of the man light up the bush they live in.

The evidence of this is that they have survived to throusands of years which innclude a reegime of reguar bush fires. Its just that the number of fires have increased and that man has taken their habitat.

IMO our goveernments have much to answer for by not doing enough becaue theycare far far more for their political agends of selling our national estate to overseas globalist organisaiton and stuff the enovirnment.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Poor beautiful little creatures.

So much devastation for man and animals alike.

a reply to: Azureblue

The evidence of this is that they have survived to throusands of years which innclude a reegime of reguar bush fires. Its just that the number of fires have increased and that man has taken their habitat.

It’s unfortunate their habitat is being taken over by man, but in my opinion humans get first dibs on living on land. God did not create animals to be more important than humans. We are to care for them, as well as hunt them for food. We don’t want extinction, yet we also don’t want animal’s lives to mean more than human lives.

originally posted by: Sheye
a reply to: Azureblue

The evidence of this is that they have survived to throusands of years which innclude a reegime of reguar bush fires. Its just that the number of fires have increased and that man has taken their habitat.

It’s unfortunate their habitat is being taken over by man, but in my opinion humans get first dibs on living on land. God did not create animals to be more important than humans. We are to care for them, as well as hunt them for food. We don’t want extinction, yet we also don’t want animal’s lives to mean more than human lives.

This is short-term thinkomg, IMO - the type of thinking that has some people believing that if we found a way to eliminate all mosquitos from the world because of Malaria, Zika, etc., we should do it.

Sure, it sounds good in magical fairyland world to a child's mind, but in the long run it leads to the end of life as we know it.

a reply to: dogstar23

This is short-term thinkomg, IMO - the type of thinking that has some people believing that if we found a way to eliminate all mosquitos from the world because of Malaria, Zika, etc., we should do it. Sure, it sounds good in magical fairyland world to a child's mind, but in the long run it leads to the end of life as we know it.

How is caring for the human population before caring for animal population a short term solution ?Sometimes it seems animals have more of a right to exist than humans.

Prove that it would mean the end of life as we know it. Many animals and insects have become extinct over long periods of time and guess what ? We’re still here !

originally posted by: Sheye
a reply to: Azureblue

The evidence of this is that they have survived to throusands of years which innclude a reegime of reguar bush fires. Its just that the number of fires have increased and that man has taken their habitat.

It’s unfortunate their habitat is being taken over by man, but in my opinion humans get first dibs on living on land. God did not create animals to be more important than humans. We are to care for them, as well as hunt them for food. We don’t want extinction, yet we also don’t want animal’s lives to mean more than human lives.

Say that to the next pack of lions you meet whilst strolling along nonchalantly in the African bush...

Looking for first dibs...

😉

originally posted by: Lagomorphe

originally posted by: Sheye
a reply to: Azureblue

The evidence of this is that they have survived to throusands of years which innclude a reegime of reguar bush fires. Its just that the number of fires have increased and that man has taken their habitat.

It’s unfortunate their habitat is being taken over by man, but in my opinion humans get first dibs on living on land. God did not create animals to be more important than humans. We are to care for them, as well as hunt them for food. We don’t want extinction, yet we also don’t want animal’s lives to mean more than human lives.

Say that to the next pack of lions you meet whilst strolling along nonchalantly in the African bush...

Looking for first dibs...

😉

😂 .. You’re right.. I shouldn’t have put it that way.. BUT.. if one of the only places I can raise my family and feed them is the African bush, then by God I will take my hunting rifle and fight for my family’s survival against lions. Should I care more about them ? .. or be too afraid to look after loved ones ? Just askin’ 😉

originally posted by: Sheye

originally posted by: Lagomorphe

originally posted by: Sheye
a reply to: Azureblue

The evidence of this is that they have survived to throusands of years which innclude a reegime of reguar bush fires. Its just that the number of fires have increased and that man has taken their habitat.

It’s unfortunate their habitat is being taken over by man, but in my opinion humans get first dibs on living on land. God did not create animals to be more important than humans. We are to care for them, as well as hunt them for food. We don’t want extinction, yet we also don’t want animal’s lives to mean more than human lives.

Say that to the next pack of lions you meet whilst strolling along nonchalantly in the African bush...

Looking for first dibs...

😉

😂 .. You’re right.. I shouldn’t have put it that way.. BUT.. if one of the only places I can raise my family and feed them is the African bush, then by God I will take my hunting rifle and fight for my family’s survival against lions. Should I care more about them ? .. or be too afraid to look after loved ones ? Just askin’ 😉

How is the wildlife doing in the African bush...?

Fine without us parasites... Rich hunters out for BIG GAME.

I see and understand completely where you are coming from though Sheye.