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  • 5/29/2025
As south-east Queensland grows, so does the need for more urban development in areas that are considered "prime koala habitat" and crucial to their future. Hundreds are dying each year from the chlamydia epidemic; car strikes and habitat loss and there are fears proposed developments in native forests could see already dwindling koala numbers dramatically reduce. But it's not all bad news with a team of researchers finding ways to re-establish locally extinct populations.

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00:00Two koalas, once on the brink of death, are released back into the wild.
00:19Both came into the care of RSPCA Queensland, infected with chlamydia.
00:24They can become incontinent, they can't see particularly well, so quite often when they
00:29come in they're in poor body condition, they can be dehydrated.
00:33But their chances of survival are limited by a shortage of the chlamydia vaccine and
00:38by housing developments in the area, which are encroaching on their habitat.
00:44We've got to the point now, this year it's like a line in the sand, if we keep going,
00:50the koalas that are left here have nowhere else to go, they've been cut off.
00:57More development proposals threaten the future of koalas in the Woogaroo forest in the Ipswich
01:03local government area.
01:05While these sites may not pose a major threat on their own, if all are approved, experts
01:11say it will dramatically reduce available habitat.
01:16And so it's that death by a thousand cut sort of thing.
01:19Wildlife experts estimate between 12 and 16,000 koalas remain in the wild across South East Queensland.
01:27They treat about 1,300 each year.
01:31Of those, at least half don't survive.
01:39But there is hope.
01:41I'm going to listen in for a female called Matilda.
01:45Using GPS technology, researcher Sean Fitzgibbon tracks a collared koala in bushland in Brisbane's
01:53South West. Matilda is among several young displaced koalas being used to successfully re-establish
02:01locally extinct populations like this one in Wacol.
02:06We've placed more than a dozen animals here now and we're seeing already we've had the first
02:12generation and now the second generation coming through.
02:15As South East Queensland continues to grow and with the Olympics just seven years away,
02:22the need to strike the right balance between development and the environment has never been
02:29more important.
02:32I don't want to be somebody who stands there with Olympic visitors and says look,
02:38I could have shown you koalas in the wild, but I'm sorry I can't because they're now extinct.
02:42Because the powers that be decided they weren't worth it.

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