Hundreds of koalas killed in Australia to curb overpopulation

Close to 700 koalas have been killed off by authorities in southeastern Australia because overpopulation led to the animals starving, a state minister confirmed Wednesday. Victorian Environment Minister Lisa Neville said the koalas were euthanised in the Cape Otway area, near the scenic tourist drawcard the Great Ocean Road, in 2013 and 2014.

Population densities were reaching up to 20 koalas per hectare at Cape Otway. The intervention was necessary to prevent suffering of koalas because they weren’t able to find enough food.

Australian Environment Minister Lisa Neville

Despite the population in Cape Otway booming, the much-loved furry animal has been under increasing threat in recent decades elsewhere, with a plunge in population numbers from habitat loss, disease, dog attacks, bushfires and other factors. Thought to number in excess of 10 million before British settlers arrived in 1788, the Australian Koala Foundation estimates that there are now less than 100,000 in the wild. The foundation said koala numbers at Cape Otway were the result of “gross mismanagement”.

The whole of the cape smelled of dead koalas. It smelled like death.

Frank Fotinas, who runs the Bimbi Park Caravan Park at Cape Otway

Science Koalas