Today there are millions of endangered species in the world. Australia alone has approximately 1500 endangered species. This includes the banded anteater, red kangaroo, wombat, giant freshwater crayfish, and the giant clam. The Koala is the most important animal on Australia mind right now. How are factors of contine

ntal drift, eating habits, predators, climate, reproduction, disease, and man effecting the koala in today's world? What is being done to save these harmless creatures?

Since the two centuries has gone by and the white settlers began developing their new nation; eighty percent of the koala habitat has been destroyed. The twenty percent lest remaining has no protection by federal government, but instead is protected by private land owners. Man has been destroying their habitat causing then to live in small areas and this would cause their food supply to diminishing rapidly and would cause then to starve (Sharp). One instance of overpopulation was a conservation measure that took place in the 1920s. Eighteen koalas were transported from the mainland to Kangaroo Island. Kangaroo Island was chosen because it had no predators that would harm the koalas. The koala population began to grow. The population climaxed at 5,000 koalas. However now they faced starvation. The ecosystem could not handle mass munching of the koalas (Higgs 16). This case proved that koalas would eat themselves out of house and home if they were forced to live in small areas. Once again this will lead to a decline in their population causing them to face extinction.

Australian Government. Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Consumer Guide To Endangered Species. Jun. 1993

Scientific American Feb. 1995: 14.

http://www.akfkoala.gil.com.au/factmyth.html (Oct. 29, 1998).

Another factor that causes the koala population to decline is the difficulty that they face towards reproduction. The koala finds it's mates by wandering on the ground between patches of tress. This will make susceptible for the dingo's once again. After it finds it mate, a premature koala is born thirty-five days later. The baby is hairless and blind. If the baby did not already fall to the ground after birth, it will crawl its tow centimeter long body that weighs half a gram up its mother stomach into her pouch. Now it becomes the mother's job to keep it safe. If all goes well the koala will remain in the mothers pouch for seven months as it suckles for nourishment's from the mother. During its eighth month the koala will start to explore the outside pouch for the next six weeks. After that it spends the next year on its mother's back and lap. That's almost two years before the mother can reproduce again. The baby koala then becomes winged of its mother and searches for another place to live (Slater 18). It's still small enough for the eagle and owl, just big enough for the python and dingo. The hardship that is taken on each birth causes the koala population to grow at a very slow rate. Match this against the number of koalas that are lost due to other reasons, and one would notice a decline in population, leading to extinction.

Do to the koala's diet, it is very lazy and quiet. The leaves that it eats contain up to 50 percent water. This eliminates the need for the koala to get out of its tree to search for water. The leaves only contain about half of the sugars and starches that a si

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Approximate Word count = 2068
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)