Rampant deforestation is killing koalas

Deforestation is killing koalas in Queensland, Australia. Three million hectares of forest in the eastern part of the country could be bulldozed in the two decades leading up to 2030, according to projections cited by The Guardian — and koalas are suffering for it. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia found that between 2012 and 2016, the bulldozing of trees killed at least 5,183 koalas.

80 percent of koalas on Queensland’s Koala Coast have been lost, according to WWF Australia. Tree-clearing is destroying their homes, and in southeast Queensland the animals are on the edge of extinction. WWF Australia CEO Dermot O’Gorman said populations around Brisbane, the capital of the state, “have collapsed by 50 to 80 percent in less than 20 years.”