A sub-adult male koala was recently discovered looking confused while sitting atop cut-down trees in Vittoria State Forest in New South Wales, Australia.
The koala, which stayed at the exact same spot for over an hour, was looking at the remnants of what was once his home. It has been reported that a logging operation had recently been approved by the forestry service, wherein all trees were cut down and removed from the place. This led the poor little koala confused upon returning to his home.
“Koalas would have been moved out of their homes in preparation for planned logging activities,” said Wildlife Information, Rescue, and Education Service (WIRES) general manager Leanne Taylor.
“It is common for koalas to roam back to their home range afterwards and become confused to find nothing there. A worker noticed a koala had been sitting stationary in broad daylight on top of wood piles for over an hour,” added Taylor.
The workers slowly approached the koala and realized it had an eye injury, so they brought him to a local veterinary clinic to be treated. After that, the koala had been relocated to a different forest, along with three other koalas that has been found by forestry workers lurking at another clear-cut site.
Koala conservation plans
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed koalas under Least Concern back in 2008. It appeared the population of these small creatures is abundant in several cities in Australia.
However, the Australian government decided to include them in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 in 2012, because of its continuous decline in population.
According to a report by White Wolf Pack, the geographical range of koalas has shrunk by more than 50%, because of fragmentation of habitat in Queensland alone.
