 Koalas, an iconic symbol of Australia, face extinction as rapidurbanizationalong the eastern seaboard destroys their fragile habitat, environmental activists have warned.
The Australian Koala Foundation has written to the government urging it to declare the koala avulnerable speciesafter a survey of 1,000 koala habitats found 30 percent no longer had a koala in them and 60 percent had suffered widespread destruction. "I truly believe that in my lifetime the koala will become extinct unless we do something," Deborah Tabarat, executive director of the foundation, told reporters. Koalas are protected by law but theeucalyptus treesthey call home and which provide their only source of food are not. There are about 100,000 koalas in Australia, down from an estimated 7 million to 10 million at the time of white settlement in 1788. In the 1920s 3 million koalas were shot for their fur. Tabarat said the major problem facing koalas was that the majority of Australia's 20 million people and the majority of the koala population both call Australia's eastern states home. She said that with 80 percent of Australia's east coasttemperateforestsdestroyed and continued rapid urbanization, koalas along the eastern seaboard could be extinct in 15 years. "This animal is in serious trouble," said Tabarat. "In 15 years you will not see a koala west of the divide," she said, referring to the Great Australian Divide, mountains that divide east coast Australia from its rural outback. Wild koalas only exist in four of Australia's six states: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. Themarsupialhas no natural predator but has been in decline for decades due to urban sprawl and from car accidents and dog attacks. More than 4,000 koalas are killed each year by dogs and cars, said the foundation on its Web site. The most robust koala population on the Australian mainland exists in southeast Queensland and numbers about 10,000, but it too faces extinction in 15 years, said Tabarat. Southeast Queensland is experiencing the most rapid population growth of any part of Australia. Over the past eight years 16,000 koalas in the area arrived dead or fatally injured in hospitals after accidents with cars or dog attacks and another 10,000 injured koalas probably died in the bush, said Tabarat. (Agencies)
| 環保主義者提出警告，東海岸的迅速城市化破壞了樹袋熊脆弱的棲息環境，樹袋熊——澳大利亞的象征——瀕臨滅絕。 在對1000處樹袋熊棲息地進行調查后，澳大利亞樹袋熊保護基金會寫信給政府，迫切要求政府宣布將樹袋熊列為瀕危物種。該調查發現，有30%的棲息地中已經找不到一只樹袋熊了，還有60%也已遭到大規模破壞。 基金會執行理事黛博拉·塔巴拉特告訴記者說：“我確信，如果我們再不采取措施的話，在我的有生之年，樹袋熊將會滅絕。” 樹袋熊是受法律保護的，但是桉樹作為它們的家園，同時也是它們唯一的食物來源，卻沒有受到法律的保護。 澳大利亞現在約有十萬只樹袋熊，比起1788年白種人殖民地時期大大下降，當時估計有七百萬到一千萬。二十世紀二十年代，三百萬只樹袋熊因毛皮被射殺。 塔拉巴特說，目前樹袋熊面臨的主要問題是，澳大利亞兩千萬人口中的大部分和大多數的樹袋熊都在澳大利亞東部地區安家落戶。 她說，隨著東海岸80%的溫帶森林遭到破壞，再加上持續而迅猛的城市化進程，生活在東部沿海的樹袋熊可能會在今后15年內滅絕。 塔拉巴特說：“這種動物處境非常危險。” 她說：“15年后，在大分水嶺以西，人們將再也見不到樹袋熊。”大分水嶺是指將澳大利亞東海岸和內地鄉村分開的山脈。 野生樹袋熊僅存于澳大利亞六個州中的四個，它們是昆士蘭、新南威爾士、維多利亞和南澳大利亞。 這種有袋動物并沒有自然天敵，但其數量在過去幾十年間逐漸減少，主要原因是城市的擴張、車禍和狗的襲擊。 樹袋熊保護基金會在其網站上公布，每年死在車輪之下和被狗咬死的樹袋熊超過4000只。 澳洲大陸上樹袋熊種群最興旺的地區是昆士蘭州東南部，有大約一萬只，但塔拉巴特說，這里的樹袋熊也將在十五年內瀕臨滅絕。 她指出，昆士蘭東南部現在是澳大利亞各地中人口增長最快的地區。在過去八年間，這里有一萬六千只樹袋熊在遇到車禍和被狗襲擊后，送達醫院時已經死亡或受致命傷，另外可能還有一萬只樹袋熊受傷后死在叢林之中。 urbanization:城市化
vulnerable species:瀕危物種
eucalyptus trees:桉樹
temperate forests:溫帶森林
marsupial:有袋動物 （中國日報網站譯）
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Updated: 2004-06-23 01:00
