The Koala is threatened because of habitat loss

Australian conservation groups are renewing calls for koalas to be declared an endangered species, months after bushfires devastated the population and their habitat.

Eucalypt Forest - view into a lightly wooded coastal eucalypt forest with Manna Gum trees, the habitat of the Koala. Source: Ardea Picture Library

Almost half of Australia's koala population is believed to have perished in a summer of devastating bushfires which scorched millions of hectares of forests and national parks. Now, new research by the World Wide Fund for Nature shows more of their habitat is disappearing as land clearing rates have risen since the federal government listed koalas as vulnerable in 2012.