One of
Longleat Safari Park's koalas has been put down after becoming seriously ill.
The
female, called Wilpena, was one of five southern koalas to arrive from
Australia last October as part of a conservation programme.
The park
said it had no alternative after she developed kidney disease.
One male
and four female koalas were sent to the Wiltshire park from Adelaide under a
scheme to protect the vulnerable species.
They are
the only southern koalas in Europe.
Longleat's
Graeme Dick said oxalate nephrosis was a disease that affects almost 60% of
koalas in captivity and in the wild, but the cause is unknown.
"It
wasn't wholly unexpected. We did think at some stage we may encounter the
problem, it just hit us quite early on in the programme," he said.
He said
Wilpena had undergone two weeks of "really intense palliative care"
but her kidneys stopped functioning and "the kindest thing was to let her go".
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