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Quite possibly one of the cutest animals in existence, the Australian koala is facing serious health dangers.

Even before bushfires began driving this species dangerously close to extinction, experts estimated that there were only about 329,000 koalas in Australia, which represents an average of a 24 percent decline in populations over the past three generations.

Koalas are today threatened by land development, food degradation, eucalyptus tree loss, drought, dog attacks, and chlamydia1. Chlamydia flare ups can be especially extreme in koalas, leading to severe inflammation, massive cysts and scarring of the reproductive tract. In the worst cases, the animals cannot urinate without great pain2.

Of the 1,000 individuals arriving annually in New South Wales and Queensland wildlife hospitals, 40% have untreatable late-stage chlamydia and cannot be rehabilitated3.

Researchers tracking the population of koalas on the Koala Coast south of Brisbane have found that 52% of the koalas observed showed chlamydia-like symptoms. About 61% of koalas in Victoria’s South Gippsland region are also carrying the disease4.

Though chlamydia doesn’t directly kill koalas, it renders them infertile means koalas could become extinct in as little as a few decades.

There is a vaccine, but the cure can be as deadly as the disease. Antibiotics extinguish the koala’s crucial gut flora that help them subsist on eucalyptus, leaving a koala unable to gain nutrients from its food5.

In a 2019 trial, one of five koalas treated with antibiotics later had to be euthanized due to gastrointestinal complications, resulting in muscle wasting and dehydration5. Veterinarians have been giving antibiotic-treated koalas fecal transplants in the hopes of restoring their microbiota.

Handling infected wild koalas can stress them on top of their poor health. Koalas also must increasingly cope with an unreliable natural environment, such as drought brought on by climate change, and the building of highways, which forces them out of trees and into the way of cars and predators6.

In all, it’s becoming harder for koalas to exist.

Koalas are now considered vulnerable to extinction just a step above endangered with hundreds of thousands killed in fire-devastated zones of northern New South Wales7. Making matters worse, about 40% of Australian female koalas are now infertile.

We must intervene if we are to reverse the pattern that could lead these cuddly creatures to extinction.

Sign the petition asking Australia’s Federal Environment Minister to elevate koalas to endangered status and ensure they receive the resources necessary to avert this catastrophe.