Photo: Holger Detje | Pixabay
In New South Wales, Australia, the 2019-'20 bush fires have burned more than 8 million acres of eucalyptus forest -- a landmass that amounts to a quarter of the state's quality koala habitat. Scientists estimate that the fires eliminated around 71 percent of the area's koala populations. To boost the beloved marsupials' population, New South Wales' Port Macquarie Koala Hospital has recently launched the world's first wild koala breeding and release program, in efforts to repopulate Australia's devastated forests. While zoos have long bred captive koalas, no one has attempted to breed wild koalas and reintroduce their captive-born young to the bush. Yet conservationists say that without such an intervention, the koala population may never recover naturally. The program will be a pilot project for its first 3-5 years and, after 2 years, the hospital expects to be able to release the young into the wild.
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