Exit Koala

Scientists fear that the koala may be wiped out in 30 years

A vegetarian marsupial native to Australia, the koala is a main contender for the world's cutest animal.

But a variety of factors are pushing this furry and docile animal towards extinction. A recent survey by the Australian Koala Foundation has found that its numbers have halved in the past six years.

Previous population estimates were around 100,00o individuals -- today that number is 43,000.

It has been dealing with habitat loss from human development. In particular, the growth of tourism has forced the koala out of its home.

"Out-of-control population growth in southeast Queensland has allowed urban sprawl to reduce what was Australia's largest remaining koala colony between Brisbane and the Gold Coast from about 7000 animals a decade ago to possibly fewer than 2000," writes Brian Williams in Brisbane's Courier Mail.

Deforestation is also a huge concern, as koalas live entirely in trees.

"The koalas are missing everywhere we look," Foundation chief Deborah Tabart told the BBC. "It's really no tree, no me. If you keep cutting down trees you don't have any koalas."

Now, Australia's iconic tree-dweller is being further pushed into extinction by the rise of an AIDS-like retrovirus.

First discovered in 2000, the deadly retrovirus "infects and alters the animal's DNA, has been linked to a variety of diseases and medical problems, including leukemia, bone marrow failure, cancer and AIDS-like immune deficiencies," according to a recent Scientific American article.

The government is expected to list the animal as vulnerable to extinction.

Like the greater glider and ringtail possum, the koala can survive on a diet of eucalyptus leaves.

But at the moment, it needs a lot more than yummy leaves and an official "vulnerable" designation. It needs funding for research to stop the spread of the retrovirus.

"Twenty-two million dollars has been committed by government to manage the contagious cancer affecting Tasmanian devils," said Dr. John Hanger, a koala research pioneer and the first person to isolate and genetically sequence the retrovirus infection, according to the Courier Mail.

"The koala disease epidemic is just as devastating but we know little about it."

GET INVOLVED

• Adopt a koala from the World Wildlife Fund
• Foster a koala through the Australian Koala Foundation
  
• Sign a petition to save the Queensland koalas
  
• Support the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Countdown 2010 to save the world's biodiversity
• Sign a petition to the United Nations to show your support of biodiversity

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image: baby koala, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary (credit: Erik Veland)