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antipodi
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Joined: 25 Jan 2006
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Mon Mar 20, 2006 8:00 pm
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 Battle to save koalas ...Bushfires
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Battle to save koalas ..... bushfires
Wednesday, 1 February 2006
In the wake of bushfires in the Grampians and the Brisbane Ranges volunteers work to save koalas suffering severe injuries and trauma.
It was just one week after Rolf Schlagloth and his colleagues from the Australian Koala Foundation had finished mapping the koala habitats of Steiglitz, in the western hills of the Brisbane Ranges, that a massive bushfire erupted, taking a week to bring under control.
He is now part of a small but dedicated team of volunteers, combing the burnt out areas looking for koalas trapped by the ferocious fire which burned more than 6,000 hectares of forest and farmland. At this stage there is no absolute count of the losses to a region known as Victoria's most populous koala habitat, but according to Rolf the situation is dire.
"Exact numbers are very difficult to determine... the fact remains around Anakie the losses are very high - the koala habitat is very good there. Last night I came back at midnight with an arborist who's a very good tree climber, and we rescued another two koalas. We've been out there six days and nights and rescued a dozen koalas and found 20 or 30 dead ones, and that's just the ones we've found. There are many other teams and helpers out there who collect them from the ground. We were just in one small area near Anakie - with a fire over 6,000 hectares in size you multiply that number out, it's a large number," he says, adding that it's not just the Brisbane Ranges which saw a massive destruction of koalas and their habitat, it's also the fires which continue to burn in the Grampians.
...even if they do survive, there is very little to eat for them..."
"Again, the numbers vary over the type of habitat, but definitely are - or I should say they probably were - because with the intensity of the fire, koalas have very little chance to survive. They are such an animal that if there is a fire they go up into the tallest part of the tree, and fire being fire it goes up like a chimney, and the koala is trapped up there, either burnt or severely injured. The few trees that don't get burned totally, there's very little leaves left, so even if they do survive, there is very little to eat for them."
It's a double whammy for the creatures known worldwide as one of Australia's cutest mammals, according to Rolf. If the fire didn't get them then the ensuing search for water results in serious injuries as well.
"Koalas take only water from the leaves unless they're in disease status or there's a drought, and then they need to come on the ground. If they don't get water from the leaves, they have to come down onto the ground; with the fire being very hot they burn their paws, so most injuries we see apart from direct burns or smoke inhalation are burnt paws," he says, explaining more of the process volunteers undergo to provide aid to the injured animals.
"Every few hours they have to medicate their paws and put ointment on and so forth - but these are things that can be healed. Smoke inhalation is very bad, because you can't actually see it; the poor things get pneumonia and all sorts of eye infections and so forth. If they don't die from the fire directly their survival chances even after that are small."
For a full-time koala carer a massive bushfire like this is a most unwelcome addition to the list of problems facing the koala populations of mainland Australia that he and the other volunteers from the Australian Koala Foundation are dealing with.
"There's other issues with koalas, like cars, dogs, loss of habitat, fragmentation of habitat, and the bushfire just makes it worse. In a situation like that with a fragmented habitat a fire can wipe out a whole localised population, and it's a worry for the Grampians because the population was already under stress there from disease..."
Australian Koala Foundation
http://www.savethekoala.com
More information on the work being done to save koalas; online donation facility for supporters; areas of importance for koala habitat
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jsqueek
Site Admin
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 814
Karma: +10 (10)
Location: UK
Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:30 am
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this is so sad, koala's are such sweet animals.
sent emails from
me
hubby
my mum.
hope they help them
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js
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jsqueek
Site Admin
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 814
Karma: +10 (10)
Location: UK
Tue Mar 21, 2006 9:31 am
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just put a thread up on macca cosmically conscious.
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js
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antipodi
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Joined: 25 Jan 2006
Posts: 1148
Karma: +6 (6)
Tue Mar 21, 2006 11:26 am
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Thanx js
Antipodi
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Antipodi
May one day man and Animals live together in harmony and peace
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jsqueek
Site Admin
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 814
Karma: +10 (10)
Location: UK
Tue Mar 21, 2006 12:39 pm
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no problem, your welcome 
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js
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