Koalas dead after ‘cruel' NSW relocation project
The project was undertaken to re-establish a koala population in an area of southern NSW where the species is extinct.
A NSW environment department spokesperson told The Guardian that 13 koalas were selected for the move and were taken from the Upper Nepean state conservation area west of Wollongong to the South East Forest national park.
Following the death of three of these koalas in April, the remaining ten were placed in a wildlife hospital, where four more later died.
According to the spokesperson, two of the three koalas that died in April had likely died of septicaemia, a bloodstream infection.
The team is investigating a 'potential link between septicaemia in koalas and adverse weather conditions' because the deaths occurred after a 'significant rainfall event'.
The six remaining koalas have been returned home to their familiar Upper Nepean habitat.
In a statement, the NSW Greens said the project has gone 'horribly wrong'.
NSW Green MP Sue Higginson said the situation is 'deeply disturbing, tragic and cruel'.
'How this even passed muster as a Koala 'conservation program' is unfathomable, something has gone radically awry,' Ms Higginson said.
'This level of experimentation with our endangered koalas is cruel, was a catastrophic failure and should not have happened. The control settings around this translocation experiment were obviously fundamentally flawed and I don't think the public would find this level of experimentation with our endangered koalas at all acceptable.'
She said that evidence of previous attempts of translocation has demonstrated that it process is 'fraught with risk and failure' for koalas.
'The Minns Labor Government promised to protect koalas, but it's been over 2 years, they haven't established the Great Koala National Park, changed any laws to better protect koalas, they haven't even completed the review of the NSW Koala Strategy'.
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