Kangaroo Island koalas: Should we move the animals interstate?
KI’s koala population needs drastic management to make sure it doesn’t balloon to pre-bushfire numbers, some conservationists say, and they’re pushing towards a big move.
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Drastic action is needed to ensure Kangaroo Island’s koala population doesn’t balloon out to pre-bushfire numbers, some conservationists say, advocating for the animals to be sent interstate.
The marsupials’ numbers have long been a point of debate in the region, after the species grew from just 18 animals in the 1920s, to more than 50,000 in December.
The fires have devastated the population – the Environment Department estimates there are 5000-10,000 left – but it is expected to bounce back.
Fraser Vickery, a former Environment Department regional manager for Kangaroo Island and the Fleurieu and Yorke Peninsulas, said the Government should consider moving a large portion of the population to Victoria.
This would limit the potential for starvation, caused by a lack of remaining habitat, and environmental problems caused by koalas overgrazing trees.
The island’s manna gums were drastically impacted before forestry provided a new food source for the animals – but most of the blue gum plantation trees were burnt in the inferno in December and January.
“Now we have an environment that’s under stress as a result of the fires, with a moderately high population that’s left and (rescued) animals being reintroduced,” Mr Vickery said.
“What we’re doing now is really putting the local natural habitat under even more pressure.”
He said the Environment Department’s sterilisation and contraceptive programs were “a serious joke”, barely making a dent on the burgeoning population before the fires.
Mr Vickery acknowledged there were significant risks in transporting the animals, including the likelihood many would die from factors such as stress, exposure to disease and adjusting to new forage.
But he said it was the only option to prevent further environmental damage and starvation.
“The only option is to move animals off the island to a place where they came from and perhaps use it as a basis to build the population in Victoria. In the eastern states the koalas are under threat.”
Tony Robinson, who part-owns a bush heritage property at Karatta, near Flinders Chase National Park, agrees the bushfires should be a turning point in koala management.
“You could work out a program of catching a number of koalas and sending them back to a suitable habitat in eastern Australia as it becomes available,” he said.
Environment Department principal ecologist Karl Hillyard said moving Kangaroo Island koalas interstate was not being considered, and Victoria had a strong population of the marsupials living in its remaining habitat.
He said it would be inappropriate to move koalas to an area where the existing population faced other threats such as habitat loss.
The department was working with researchers to ensure “a sustainable South Australian koala population continues to thrive”, with enough food to eat.
It has suspended its program of implanting koalas with contraceptives while it focuses on bushfire recovery.