Exclusive: Bushfires likely to have killed about 5,000 koalas in NSW, report finds

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

About 5,000 koalas in New South Wales are likely to have died in the bushfires, and their numbers may have dropped by as much as two-thirds in less than 20 years, a new report has found.

Conservation groups want the state government to make an emergency endangered species declaration for the koalas.

The report, commissioned by the global conservation group the International Fund for Animal Welfare, looked at how fires across seven regions had affected koalas already in decline from habitat destruction, climate change and drought.

Dr Stephen Philips, principal research scientist and koala ecologist at the environmental consultancy Biolink, which compiled the report, said: “We’ve taken a conservative approach. But we still think that we have lost two out of every three koalas in NSW. It’s a spectacular loss in terms of conservation criteria and meets endangered listing almost immediately.”

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The study looked at declines of koala populations over three generations – about 18 years – and included the effect of the fires from 1 October 2019 to 10 January 2020.

Losses were estimated to be between 29% and 67%, with further analysis to be completed covering the fires up to 10 February.

“We realised the numbers [lost] were getting quite dire, but we also appreciated there was a need for a careful quantitative assessment of what’s happened,” Phillips said.

The study examined previous estimates of koala populations. It found that in 2012 there were about 54,284 koalas in NSW. Before the fires hit, three generations of koalas’ numbers had fallen by about 20%.

The study looked at more than 100 fires, including multiple areas within those regions previously identified by the NSW government as holding key populations, known as “areas of regional koala significance” or Arks.

Areas around Port Macquarie, on the NSW north coast, and the Sydney basin had been particularly hard hit.

Koalas are susceptible to major impacts such as fires because they reproduce relatively slowly, with each female able to produce only a maximum of one joey each year.

Phillips said this reproduction rate depended on adequate food supplies and no other disturbances.

He added that climate change reports suggested conditions would get worse for koalas, with continued stress on the eucalypts they rely on for food, as well as increasing risks from bushfires.

“The situation won’t get better. It will get worse,” he said. “For koalas, the threat for extinction [in NSW] becomes elevated because they won’t be able to get their numbers up before the next fire event.”

Josey Sharrad, a wildlife campaigner at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said the state was facing a “koala emergency”.

“They’re an iconic species here and globally, and it’s unthinkable that we could be at serious risk of losing them in NSW.”

On Tuesday Ifaw wrote to the NSW threatened species committee and the environment minister, Matt Kean, to ask that koalas be “emergency uplisted” to endangered status.

Humane Society International, Port Macquarie koala hospital and Friends of the Koala also signed the request. An emergency listing could last for two years while further assessments were carried out.

Elaine Johnson, principal lawyer at the Environmental Defenders Office in Sydney, which advised Ifaw on available steps to protect koalas, said a provisional endangered listing would put further restrictions on development applications that affected on koalas and in some cases could stop developments.

“In our view [the report] provides a strong basis for a provisional listing,” Johnson said. “Importantly, the report looks at the ongoing threats from climate change and those risks are likely to increase.

“We think it’s the right time to provide further protections for koalas.”

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Guardian Australia requested a comment from Kean. A NSW government statement said it had reconvened an independent expert advisory panel to support the state’s koala strategy.

“This season’s significant bushfires have resulted in devastating losses to koala numbers across NSW and may have compounded their vulnerable status, so it is imperative that remaining populations and habitat are protected,” it said.

“Although there is no firm estimate of the number of koalas affected by the recent fires, at this stage, approximately one-quarter of the modelled koala habitat in eastern NSW is within the fire-affected area.”

Drones with thermal sensors were being used to help estimate koala populations. The planning, industry and environment department had met with the chair and deputy chair of the NSW threatened species scientific committee “to discuss the immediate impact on our animals, plants and ecosystems, and the need for species assessment and longer term recovery”.

“[The department] is undertaking an analysis of the impacts of the recent fires across the state, so we can determine the impact where the greatest impacts on wildlife and native vegetation,” the statement said.

In an unrelated announcement on Tuesday, Kean said $150,000 would go to organisations in the northern rivers and far south coast for six koala habitat restorations projects, “which include planting 50,000 koala feed tree seedlings”.



