How endangered is the koala?
In the popular media, it is often implied that the koala is in some way a threatened species. But, is it really? While it is true that the koala has declined quite substantially since European settlement, they remain one of the most widespread of all native mammals. Currently its distribution extends from north Queensland to Victoria and into South Australia, and it occupies an area of about 1 million km2. In addition its biology and requirements for management are well understood. Translocation programs have restored koalas to much of their former habitat in Victoria and koalas are now more widespread in South Australia than they were at the time of European settlement. This is arguably one of Australia’s greatest conservation success stories. But, some of these populations now occur at such high densities that they degrade their woodland habitat. Such populations have been subjected to active management, some for almost a century. Historically they were founded from low numbers of individuals, have been through several population bottlenecks and as such are genetically depauperate. This raises the questions; what is the relative value of these populations in terms of conservation? Should we attempt to restore genetic diversity to these populations? If so, how?
We now face the challenge of managing the koala in terms of both conservation and damage mitigation, as habitat destruction continues in north-eastern Australia and koalas continue to outgrow available habitat in southern Australia. Large scale fertility control programs have been, and continue to be, carried out. It is likely that koala populations will require active management for the foreseeable future. This has relevance to other situations throughout the world, e.g. elephants on the African continent.