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Climate Change: Koalas Feeling The Heat

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Australia’s koalas are standing on their hind legs for more than 10 minutes at a time to gulp water at drinking stations as rising temperatures and rainfall disruption drive the animals to search for new sources of moisture, say scientists.
The researchers of the Australian Koala Foundation recently placed cameras and water stations around a farm in the rural town of Gunnedah, more than 300km from the most populous Australian city of Sydney, and home to a large koala population. What they saw is that instead of relying solely on eucalyptus leaves for moisture, more than 100 koalas drank from water stations over the autumn and winter months. The camera footage showed that the koalas were drinking water for an average of more than 10 minutes.
Scientists previously believed that koalas only needed to consume leaves and did not drink. The desperation to slake their thirst is driving a change in the habits of the tree-dwelling species, with koalas ready to run the risk of attack from predators on the ground in their scramble for water.
Lead researcher Valentina Mella, of the University of Sydney’s School of Life and Environmental Sciences, said: “The more days without rain, the longer the visits koalas had at the water stations.” She urged the Australian government to make some tough choices in order to save “our furry friends”. According to Mella, koalas are not only a much-loved Australian icon, but also are a tourism money spinner as the vulnerable species contribute more than AUD 1 billion to the Australian economy each year.
It is evident from the research that koala populations are declining rapidly in different parts of Australia as they face the growing threat of climate change, stressed Mella. She further said that recent modelling found that koala habitat could be considerably reduced because of the world warms, particularly due to heatwaves and rainfall disruption.
While koala populations declined by 80% in western Queensland between 1995 and 2009 mainly because of habitat loss, drought and heatwaves, the number of koalas fell by 55-80% in southeast Queensland between 1996 and 2015 due to threats from urban development.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com

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99 Comments »

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