Meanwhile in Australia, the situation is still critical for koalas who need greater protection before the next fire season...
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00The situation is absolutely critical. This is an emergency. It calls for emergency measures.
00:28IFAW is calling for an emergency uplisting from the species, from the status of vulnerable to the status of endangered.
00:45They're particularly vulnerable to bushfires. Koalas live high up in flammable eucalypts.
00:51They're very slow moving, so that means that it's very difficult for them to escape the fire.
00:58The main threats to koalas is habitat loss. So koalas need trees to survive. Without trees, they can't feed, they can't move around.
01:13They literally, that is their lifeline. Unfortunately, Australia has one of the worst land clearing rates in the world, on a par with Brazil.
01:28Koalas in New South Wales and Queensland are already listed as vulnerable. That means they have some level of protection, but that obviously hasn't been enough.
01:48It hasn't had the desired impact. Populations are on a decline, a steep decline. Every koala at this point is critical to the future survival of the species.
01:59So IFAW is calling for the government to give them that greater added protection to really secure their future survival.
02:06By elevating their status to endangered, that will give them greater protection. It will mean they have greater protection from land clearing, from logging, from deforestation.
02:16Without that, their future is not certain.
02:19This fire season is now over, but the next fire season is only months away. And the Australian fire season is coming earlier each year, and with increased intensity and frequency of fires all over the country.
02:47So these koalas, who are already just only recovering from these recent bushfires, we're concerned they won't have the chance to recover in time for the next round.