Monday 28 September 2015

Victoria's Otway koalas: 'If we don’t intervene, they will die a painful death'

Koalas around Cape Otway, south-west of Melbourne, are facing a struggle for survival that will persist unless a long-term solution can be agreed on

Koalas in Cape Otway, Victoria, are captured and tracked (and, controversially, in some cases euthanised) in a bid to control population. Link to video


Monday 28 September 2015 02.23 

If you’re keen on spotting a wild koala, you can improve your chances by gazing at the eucalypts that host the largest of the marsupial species, in the Otways of Victoria.

The koalas around Cape Otway, a good three-hour drive south-west of Melbourne, off the famed Great Ocean Road, can weigh in at 14kg – roughly double the size of koalas found in Queensland.

But something is terribly amiss in this koala population. Many of the animals are starving, prompting the largest intervention yet by the state government, with a fortnight of health checks ending this week.

More controversially, this intervention also involves the sterilisation of all captured female koalas and the euthanisation of those deemed too frail to survive much longer in the wild.

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