Baby Koala Born Inside Australian Wildlife Park Has Given The Country Hope After Devastating Bushfires Almost Wiped Out Their Population

ABC News

After overcoming the horrid Australian bushfires in the last year that killed and displaced thousands of animals, the Australian Reptile Park finally has something to celebrate. They welcomed their first koala joey born in their park since the devastating 2019-2020 fire season. The park handlers decided to name the baby koala Ash, to remember the Black Summer fire season.


With the death toll estimated to be in the thousands, the koala population suffered greatly during the fires. 85% of the koala population in Northern New South Wales alone were lost, while researchers are still trying to determine the full extent of damage from November 2019 – February 2020.

It’s no surprise that baby Ash’s birth has become such a celebration, hopefully this is just the first of many other joeys being born after the traumatic bushfires.

Animal Channel

Dan Rumsey, zookeeper in the Australian Reptile Park said that “Ash represents the start of what we’re hoping to be another successful breeding season. It was such an incredible moment when we saw Ash poke her head out of her mom’s pouch for the first time!”

Female koalas usually give birth to one joey a year, although some can go two to three years without having any offspring, while the stress these mothers suffered during the fires could have a negative impact on their reproduction, especially now that their numbers have dwindled so abruptly.


According to Sussan Ley, Minister for the Environment, koalas could already be included in the endangered list because of the damage to their population in the bushfire crisis. In the beginning of 2020, the MP declared a $50 million funding package in order to help all wildlife populations bounce back after so many deaths after the bushfire devastation.

“It may be necessary… to see whether in certain parts of the country, koalas move from where they are, which is often vulnerable, up to endangered.” Ley shared with the reporters.

Part of the funds will be assigned to wildlife carers, zoos and hospitals, where there are people that are best equipped to bring back the population and wildlife housing.

The Green Hub

The devastating loss of wildlife in the 2019/2020 bushfire season shocked experts, included committee chair of the NSW upper house inquiry, Cate Faehrmann. The numbers reflected from their investigation showed that massive number of koalas that were lost over that period. According to a report published last March, there is a significant and immediate threat of extinction to the koala population after such a huge loss in their numbers.

The global conservation group International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) estimated at least 5,000 koalas died in the fires.

“That’s extremely shocking and really should be a wake-up call to the government to pause any threats to koala habitat including logging and development in key areas. There are so many threats that if we are going to stop this wonderful animal from becoming extinct we have to really, really, prioritize securing and protecting their habitat now.” Faehrmann told the Australian Associated Press (AAP).

For now, the country is celebrating this little win that Ash and her mom have started in order to regain the species’ numbers. May they be successful in having little joeys pop their heads out of their mothers pouches real soon.

 

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