[i]
DCL
Outbreaks of the koala versions of chlamydia and AIDS
Exacerbating the threat is the loss of habitat to land clearing, urbanization and the removal of eucalyptus forests. As a result, the koalas end up in overcrowded conditions in smaller and smaller spaces, making disease more easily transmitted and the koalas' immune systems weaker due to stress.
The chlamydia infection rate is thought to be between 50 and 90 percent; and CNN reports that Dr. Jon Hanger, a veterinary scientist at Australia Zoo's Wildlife Hospital who discovered the virus, thinks that most koalas he sees are carrying the KIDS virus, but that only some are predisposed to it turning into full-blown KIDS. According to Hanger, the disease is just as severe as AIDS in humans, but affects koalas quicker.
As Matt has already pointed out at Treehugger, koalas are also affected by climate change: "Recent hotter, drier conditions are reducing the nutritional value of eucalyptus leaves, leading to fatal malnutrition."
According to a recent Australian Koala Foundation report, the koala population has dropped from 100,000 to less than 43,000 in the last six years—and if nothing is done now to stop further decline, they say, koalas could be extinct within 30 years.
Looking for solutions
Drugs aren't really a practical option
Conservation good for koalas, good for humans
The Australia Koala Foundation has a slogan: "No Tree, No Me," and president Deborah Tabart used it during the December talks in Copenhagen to highlight the issue, as well as the potential for koalas to be part of a solution for lowering carbon emissions—through forest preservation.
To compensate for the carbon stored in koala forest areas (if they are cleared) would require trillions of saplings planted in a space three times the size of Australia, according to Tabart's research. Add koalas to the already long list of reasons that forest conversation makes sense, and deforestation makes none.
