Online fundraiser for bushfire-hit koalas tops Aus$1 million

SYDNEY, Australia—An online fundraiser for koalas injured in devastating bushfires topped Aus$1 million ($680,000) on Thursday, making it Australia's biggest campaign on the GoFundMe platform this year.

Deadly bushfires have ravaged vast swathes of eastern Australia, and wildlife carers estimate the blazes have killed hundreds of koalas this month in New South Wales state alone.

A crowdfunding page set up by the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital to provide automatic water drinking stations for wild koalas soared past Aus$1 million, with donations from more than 20,000 people from countries including the United States, France and England.

The wildlife charity's "Help Thirsty Koalas Devastated by Recent Fires" drive, which had an initial goal of just Aus$25,000, got more donations than any other campaign in Australia this year, GoFundMe said, and is the second-biggest since the platform launched Down Under in 2016.

It is one of 700 bushfire-related fundraisers launched on the platform in the past 10 days, which to date have raised a combined total of Aus$2 million.

The next-biggest has raised Aus$60,000 to support firefighters and people impacted by the blazes, which have killed 6 people, razed hundreds of homes and scorched about 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of land since October.

The koala hospital, some 4 hours north of Sydney, has rescued 31 koalas from the scorched bush in recent weeks, and said it had been "overwhelmed by the kindness, good wishes and support from the Australian and international community."

It plans to use the excess funds to deliver koala drinking stations to other parts of the state, purchase a water-carrying vehicle to replenish the stations, and to establish a koala breeding program.

With more than 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) of land scorched in the state, the fires have also destroyed large tracts of the tree-dwelling marsupial's habitat.

A so-called "Koala Ark" would be built for recovering koalas, the hospital said, hoping they will eventually breed and be returned to the wild.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Hundreds of koalas killed in Australia

SYDNEY, Australia - Close to 700 koalas have been killed off by authorities in southeastern Australia because overpopulation led to the animals starving, a state minister confirmed Wednesday.

Victorian Environment Minister Lisa Neville said the koalas were euthanised in the Cape Otway area, near the scenic tourist drawcard the Great Ocean Road, in 2013 and 2014.

"The intervention was necessary to prevent suffering of koalas because they weren't able to find enough food," Neville said in a statement.

"Population densities were reaching up to 20 koalas per hectare at Cape Otway."

Neville said a total of 686 koalas were found to be in poor health and were humanely put down by veterinarians in consultation with koala experts and animal welfare personnel.

The minister said she was seeking expert advice on how to manage the issue and wanted to be open with the community on the process, but has not ruled out further culls.

"Experience suggests that moving these koalas does not work and that can in fact cause even greater suffering," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"(The number of animals) continues to increase and that's why we need to have a look at a koala management strategy to see whether we can reduce that population growth which continues at a very fast pace."

Despite the population in Cape Otway booming, the much-loved furry animal has been under increasing threat in recent decades elsewhere, with a plunge in population numbers from habitat loss, disease, dog attacks, bushfires and other factors.

Frank Fotinas, who runs the Bimbi Park Caravan Park at Cape Otway, said the koalas were euthanised rather than culled, with many sick or dying from starvation and natural causes.

"The whole of the cape smelled of dead koalas. It smelled like death," he told the ABC, adding that the animals had stripped the trees in the area bare in the hunt for food.

"You should come and look at the trees. There are hundreds of acres of dead trees."

Thought to number in excess of 10 million before British settlers arrived in 1788, the Australian Koala Foundation estimates that there are now less than 100,000 in the wild.

The foundation said koala numbers at Cape Otway were the result of "gross mismanagement".

"The Australian government should hang its head in shame, for allowing a secret cull of koalas," it said in a statement on its website.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com