The koala endangered? - Le Figaro

Australian researchers are alarmed inadequate protection strategy that focuses too much on the power of the animal, eucalyptus, and forget the trees bushier foliage that serve him habitat.

koala would be in danger of extinction. Australian researchers from the University of Sydney are concerned in a study published in the journal Ecography the disappearance of habitat tree iconic marsupial of Australia. If koalas only eat eucalyptus, they do not necessarily live in the trees. When it is very hot, this animal, who hardly drinks, seek the shade of trees with more dense foliage. However, with global warming, the trees disappear as the eucalyptus, which was not taken into account so far.

“Ensure that habitat has enough food while protecting koalas from predators is not enough to ensure their survival,” is worried the lead author of the study, Matthew Crowther. Campaigns preservation of the species should not rely solely on the eucalyptus plantation, but also on the planting of trees home, he warns.

His speech is based on GPS tracking of forty koalas for three years. The researcher noted that the heat had a great influence on where sheltered koalas. He also noted the fragility of the species at high temperatures. “During a severe heat wave in 2009, a quarter of the animals that we follow are dead,” he said, worrying about the increase in temperatures in Australia with global warming.

“A quarter of the animals that we follow died during the heat wave of 2009″

These considerations do not even take into account the impact of rising CO2 on food koalas. Yet this factor makes their situation worse because carbon dioxide has a harmful effect on the nutritional value of eucalyptus leaves.

emergency invoked by Australian scientists still remains on. It remains to this day tens of thousands of koalas. If the species is listed in the Red List of reference of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), they remain in the category of “least concern”. In places, writes IUCN, the population must be controlled even as it is considered a pest.

This does not alter the fact that the necessary protective measures in other places must be made well in advance, to plant trees putting more than ten years to achieve sufficient size to accommodate the marsupial.