654381October 3, a jungle fire hit Kangaroo Island, Australia's third largest island, burning more than150,000 hectares of forest. Kangaroo Island is an important ecological habitat in Australia. There are six animal protection parks on the island and countless rare animals. So far, more than 20,000 koalas have died.
The chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation said that due to the persistent forest fires in southeastern Australia that destroyed 80% of koalas' natural habitats, the burned forests were difficult to recover, and the threat of climate change and disease, the number of koalas in Australia was greatly reduced and it was facing functional extinction.
In addition to fires, in recent years, the number of koalas has been decreasing due to deadly chlamydia infection and human activities.
According to People's Daily, the statistics of the Australian Biodiversity Center show that the number of koalas in 20 16 is about 300,000. With the intensification of climate change and the erosion of koala habitat in recent years, the number of koalas has dropped sharply to about 40,000 to 65,438+10,000. They died from natural disasters such as mountain fires and droughts, as well as man-made disasters such as car accidents and poaching. At present, the number of koalas has even dropped by 80% in some areas.
Ren Hui said that the Australian government started to protect koalas earlier. After the koala was banned from hunting in the 1920s, it began to study its artificial propagation and wild release, and achieved many achievements. However, due to the division of habitats by cities, farmland and roads in Queensland and Victoria, and the reduction of habitats caused by deforestation, the overall living conditions of koalas are still deteriorating.
In addition, the genetic diversity of koala populations in fragmented habitats and chlamydia infection in the wild are serious, and extreme climate has repeatedly caused all the leaves of eucalyptus forests to fall off, resulting in koalas losing food resources.
In addition to koalas, kangaroos, cows, sheep, birds and other animals can't escape the fire. According to a video released by Xinhuanet, on June 4th, 65438, the road in Batlo Town, New South Wales was covered with animal carcasses dismembered after the fire.