The koala is a national icon of Australia. And in some parts of the country, these marsupials — known for their fluffy ears, adorable clingy babies, and diet of eucalyptus leaves — are endangered. In the last two decades, their population size in some areas has dropped by half.
It may seem odd, then, that the government is shooting them out of trees. From helicopters. In a national park.
Earlier this month, government authorities shot and likely killed several hundred koalas from helicopters in Budj Bim National Park, a protected area in the southern state of Victoria, as journalist Michael Dahlstrom reported.
Some animal welfare advocates are alarmed. The government, meanwhile, says it’s for the benefit of the koalas. But ultimately the deaths of these animals points to much bigger problems, including climate change — which forces agencies that manage wildlife to make incredibly difficult choices.
Why is the Australian government killing koalas?
In March, a massive bushfire burned more than 5,400 acres in the park, injuring some of the koalas and destroying a large amount of eucalyptus leaves, their food. The government says the controversial program is intended to end the koalas’ suffering from burns and starvation.
But some koala advocates say there’s more to the story.
The animals are not only starving because of the fire but because logging and development has destroyed much of their habitat in Victoria. Advocates have also pointed out that there are commercial plantations of blue gum eucalyptus around Budj Bim National Park that koalas have come to rely on. When those plantations are harvested, the koalas living in them move into Budj Bim, putting pressure on what natural forests remain in the park. A fire only makes the situation worse — destroying food in a region with a dense population of koalas.
“This incident is just another one in the long line of mismanagement of the species and its habitat,” Rolf Schlagloth, a koala researcher at CQUniversity Australia, told me over email. “We can’t eliminate bushfires altogether but more continuous, healthy forests can assist in reducing the risk and severity of fires. Koala habitat needs to be extensive and connected and the management of blue gum plantations needs to consider the koala as these trees are very attractive to them.”
Schlagloth and other koala experts are also skeptical that shooting the animals from helicopters is the best approach. When animals are severely injured, euthanasia is often the humane response, they say, but it should be a last resort. And an aerial cull “appears to be a very indiscriminate method,” Schlagloth said.
Australia also has a long history of managing its wild animals — both native and nonnative — by killing them.
“Rescue should always be the first option if feasible,” Schlagloth said.
Rescuing the koalas, or assessing their health up close, was not feasible, according to the Victoria government. “All other methods which have been considered are not appropriate given the inability to safely access large areas of impacted landscape by foot due to the remote location of animals often high in the canopy, the extremely rugged terrain, and in consideration of the safety risks of working in a fire affected area, with fire impacted trees,” James Todd, chief biodiversity officer at Victoria’s Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action (DEECA), said in a statement to Vox.
DEECA is consulting with an experienced wildlife veterinarian and only koalas in extremely poor condition are euthanized, the agency told Vox. (The term “euthanize” is a bit of a stretch because it implies the animals were killed painlessly — something shooting from a helicopter cannot guarantee.) The “work” is ongoing, the spokesperson said, suggesting that more koalas may be killed.
What it will take to help koalas
It’s easy to blame the Victoria government for these koala deaths — and maybe it does deserve some blame. Yet once the fire broke out, there were really no good options for helping the park’s animals without tackling more fundamental problems.
In late 2019 and early 2020, catastrophic fires ravaged eastern Australia, killing or displacing around 3 billion animals, including an estimated 60,000 koalas. Scientists say climate change made the conditions for those fires more likely.
