Diseases & Bush Fires: The Future Looks Bleak For Australia's Koalas

"They really run the risk of becoming extinct inside our lifetime," Morgan Philpott, an Australian paediatric nurse told Reuters, while helping a veterinarian treat a rescued koala infected with the bacterial disease chlamydia.?

Widespread infection among koalas, forest fires, drought, logging, and urban encroachment on their habitat are some of the events that threaten their survival. A government report in June warned that if the situation does not change, these animals - the symbol of Australia - could disappear from New South Wales by 2050.

"If the areas that didn't burn last year burn this year, that would really be catastrophic," for the koalas, said Philpott. "Future fires could spell the end of them."

The worst wildfire summer in the country in a generation devastated more than 11.2 million hectares, almost half the area of ??the UK, leaving gray marsupials at the center of political and social debate.

In New South Wales, at least 5,000 koalas died in the fires, according to the government's June report. As another summer looms, the koalas face the threat of more wildfires, though forecasters are expecting months that are wetter and colder than last year.

New state laws seek to limit farmers' ability to raze land considered important for koala habitat, sparking a political fight between urban conservationists and those who want to manage their properties in the mountains.

"The rate of tree-clearing and loss of habitats (are) behind all of the other factors that threaten them in those developed areas which include domestic dog attacks and vehicle strikes," said Kellie Leigh, head of Science for Wildlife, a non-profit conservation organisation, before releasing a koala and her calf in a charred tree showing green shoots in Kanangra-Boyd National Park, about 200 km west of Sydney.

Conservationists, who blame climate change for much of the wildfires, are also targeting cities, as population growth in metropolises like Sydney fuels demand to cut down forests and make way for homes.

"There needs to be a balance to ensure that these species survive," said Tracey, a WIRES volunteer, who asked not to give her surname, as she fed a mother and twin joeys eucalyptus leaves inside a rehabilitation enclosure next to her home.