Conservationists

Conservationists have long debated whether the koala should go on the Australian national threatened species list. While the koala is clearly in trouble in some parts of the country in Queensland, for example, high numbers are afflicted by disease in other parts such as Victoria and South Australia the problem is not that koala populations are falling , but that they have grown to the point where they are almost too numerous. For a species to be classed as vulnerable, its population must have decreased by more than 30 percent over the last three generations or 10 years. The problem is that when such a stipulation is applied to koalas, the Victorian boom offsets the Queensland bust, and the species stays off the list. This has repercussions because northern koalas are different to southern ones. They are smaller, for example, and they contain a genetic variation not represented in the South. For this reason , a split listing has been devised of koalas from New South Wales; the ACT and Queensland are now officially 'vulnerable'; those from Victoria and South Australia are not considered threatened.