Can you help rescued koalas thrive?

Background

There are less than 80,000 koalas left in the wild. In 2022 koalas were reclassified from ‘vulnerable’ to ‘endangered’ across several eastern Australian states - the stronghold of their endemic habitat. Koalas spend most of their time in the trees, eating a very specific diet of eucalyptus leaves and sleeping. Each koala needs about 100 trees in its home range to thrive. This makes them extremely vulnerable to habitat loss and fragmentation.

Threats

The main threats that face koalas are human driven, these are;

Deforestation - driven by agriculture, mining and other commercial interests, causes habitat loss and fragmentation, Australia has the highest rate of deforestation of any developed nation.

Human Development - expanding cities, roads and other infrastructure cuts up koala habitat and leaves them vulnerable to being hit by vehicles.

Climate Change - bushfires, drought and floods all conspire to have devastating impact and injuries to koalas and other species, as well as their habitat. The 2019 bushfires destroyed 9% of koala habitat in one go.

Dog and cat attacks - these pets are not endemic to Australia, as such koalas have not evolved to cope with predation from them, this leaves them very vulnerable in urban areas.

Status

Due to all the habitat loss and fragmentation that is happening in the koala’s natural habitat they are driven closer to high risk areas. This leads them to come into contact with humans, their pets and risk traversing roads (normally at night time) all of which can result in serious injury or worse. Injured and sick koalas are frequently found by concerned people and taken to koala refuges, hospitals and other care facilities. Here they are assessed and treated, then a decision has to be made as to whether they will be better off staying in captivity or whether they can be returned to the wild.

How does your donation aid We Are All Mammals to help?

We Are All Mammals, or WAAM, is a UK based charity with a vision of ‘A world where, together, we and our fellow mammals thrive’. With expertise in animal care, welfare, health and behaviour WAAM is working with Australian based koala charities to uplift the lives of these rescued animals, in 3 main ways:

Understand behaviour of rehabilitated koalas to achieve greater success for release

Improve care of breeding animals to assist them produce more healthy offspring for release

Adapt the management of koala that will live out their days in captivity to the best it can be

WAAM is looking to bring together all stakeholders who are crucial to koala conservation and care for this undeniably loveable and iconic Australian marsupial to help the species THRIVE alongside humans.