Its been quite a tough year for our wildlife population.

At least 30,000 koalas across the country lost their lives in last summers devastating bushfires - and in New South Wales alone, up to 71 per cent of the population was wiped out.

Watch the full story above

Now, legislation aimed to protect the species has received backlash from some landowners.

But amongst the bad news, the country has banded together for our furry friends.

State and Federal governments have pledged millions of dollars to the cause, and people all over the country have knitted mittens to aid those affected by the fires.

But theres still a long way to go to save our koalas.

Its not good, to put it very bluntly, said Chad Staples, a zookeeper from Mogo and Featherdale Wildlife Parks.

The fires were devastating for so many species but a tree-dwelling species is going to be affected far worse.

They were already under intense pressure prior to the fires, so its not good.

A tree-dwelling species is going to be affected far worse.

Australian forests need fire to regenerate, and its very natural - but that was a big-scale, high-intensity fire, and that wiped out a lot.

If koala populations were already in big numbers, you would have that flow come back in as the forest comes back.

But because wed already isolated so many of those pockets, for them to breed back to those numbers will take decades.

As part of the rehabilitation process, its important that we keep as much of their habitat as possible.

They will come back if we can allow them to, Staples said.

With the help of zoos, we can always breed koalas to go back - but if theres nowhere for them to go back to, its pretty dire.

Koala corridors are also important so one group of koalas will not get cut off from others.

Koalas need to be able to breed with different groups within their species - and without corridors, they also cant get to new food sources or escape fires.

If you have a pocket of good habitat, that is great for that area, but you need genetic drift, Staples said.

If you have any sort of island population, theres nothing coming in or going out, so youre essentially bottlenecking - and its a very short-term solution.

The corridor allows for males to move between changing genetics and strengthening the whole genome of the population.

In some more uplifting news, Archer, a koala at Featherdale Wildlife Park, has become a dad for the first time.

And the names of Archers two baby joeys have been chosen with a little help from royalty.

The female joey is being named after Princess Eugenie, and the male is being named Jack, after her husband, Staples said.

Theyve been massive supporters and theyre dying to come back out when everyone can travel again.

Go here to read the rest:
Australia's 2020 bushfires wiped out 71 per cent of NSW's koala population - and restoring the numbers will take 'decades' - 7NEWS.com.au

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