Two embattled icons of Australian fauna have received a boost to their survival hopes, with Queensland’s koalas given blanket vulnerable status and the Tasmanian devil promoted to become an emblem for the state.
On Sunday Queensland’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, announced that all koalas in the state, and not just those in the southeast region, would be listed as vulnerable.
And in Tasmania, the state has for the first time chose an animal emblem – the Tasmanian devil – which the government hopes will help raise awareness about devil facial tumour disease.
An independent technical committee recommended the koala listing in Queensland. “Everybody loves the koala and we must do everything in our power to protect [it] now and into the future,” Palaszczuk said at the Daisy Hill Koala Centre.
Dog attacks, car accidents and other consequences of urbanisation were having a huge impact on koala welfare, she said.
The new classification will bring the state government in line with the federal government’s position on koalas.
State agencies will have to work closely with local councils to ensure koala populations are mapped and factored into development as an environmentally significant species.
Developers may also have to take steps to offset any impact on koalas by planting new habitats.
Queensland’s environment minister, Steven Miles, said the new rating was bittersweet news for the state’s conservation efforts.
“It’s bad news because it means the koala population is not as strong outside of southeast Queensland as we thought,” he said. “But it’s good news because it means the government and local councils will do more to protect [them].”
Mike Devery, of the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, said Queensland’s koala numbers were not clear but a revised figure was in the works. An audit between 2007 and 2011 put koala losses at 16,000, he said.
The state government also said a new “Spot Our Species” app would be released. Locals would be encouraged to take a snap when they spotted a koala and help map areas of concentration.
Further south, the Tasmanian devil has been officially declared the state’s animal emblem.
Tasmania’s environment minister, Matthew Groom, said the devil was recognised across the world as uniquely Tasmanian.
He said choosing it as the state emblem would help raise awareness about devil facial tumour disease, a fatal condition characterised by the appearance of obvious facial cancers.
The decision brings Tasmania, which had been without an official animal emblem, in line with the rest of Australia.
With Australian Associated Press
