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Close to
700 koalas have been killed off by authorities in southeastern Australia
because overpopulation led to the animals starving, a state minister has
confirmed (AFP Photo/Torsten Blackwood)
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Close to
700 koalas have been killed off by authorities in southeastern Australia
because overpopulation led to the animals starving, an official said Wednesday,
sparking claims of mismanagement.
Victoria
state Environment Minister Lisa Neville said the koalas were euthanised around
Cape Otway near the scenic tourist drawcard the Great Ocean Road, in 2013 and
2014, with a caravan site owner saying the whole area "smelt like
death" before they were put down.
"The
intervention was necessary to prevent suffering of koalas because they weren't
able to find enough food," Neville said in a statement.
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 similar operations.
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Wild koalas
have been under increasing threat in some parts of Australia in
recent decades,
with a plunge in population numbers from habitat loss, disease,
dog attacks,
bushfires and other factors (AFP
Photo/Torsten Blackwood)
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"Experience
suggests that moving these koalas does not work and that can in fact cause even
greater suffering," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"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
koala population in Cape Otway booming, the much-loved furry animal has been
under increasing threat in recent decades elsewhere, particularly from habitat
loss, disease, dog attacks and bushfires.
The
Australian Koala Foundation, which estimates there are now less than 100,000 of
the unique animals in the wild, blamed long-term mismanagement for the deaths
at Cape Otway.
"What
they have done is shocking," said chief executive Deborah Tabart.
"Why
did they let it happen in the first place? I think the government should hang
its head in shame."
Starvation 'horrific to witness'
The Cape
Otway population has grown since koalas were relocated there from French Island,
off Victoria, in the 1980s, said Deakin University expert Desley Whisson.
French
Island had been a safe haven for the animals when they were driven to near
extinction by hunting for their pelts in the early 1900s.
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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 (AFP Photo/Torsten Blackwood)
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But by the
1980s, the population was getting too big and some were moved to Cape Otway and
elsewhere.
But with no
natural predators, such as wedge-tailed eagles, or bushfires which would
otherwise have kept populations under control, the numbers proliferated.
Frank
Fotinas, who runs the Bimbi Park Caravan Park at Cape Otway, said before the
killings, 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 bare in the hunt for food.
Whisson,
who was involved in last year's operation, said the koala management was never
done in secret and nor was it a cull, which is illegal for koalas in Australia.
"It
was putting koalas out of their misery," she told AFP, adding that she
believed there could easily have been a further two koalas put down at the time
for every one killed.
Whisson
said that ahead of the operation overpopulation had become acute in the area,
with 15 of the 20 animals she was radio tracking at the time dying of
starvation.
"It
was horrific to witness," she said.
While
Whisson had no doubt koala numbers were in decline in states such as Queensland
and New South Wales due to development and habitat loss, she said it was
different at Cape Otway.
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