At work, Morgan Philpott cares for sick children. In his off-hours, the Australian nurse turns his attention to an equally unprotected group unwell koala. "They really run the risk of becoming extinct inside our lifetime," Philpott said at an animal hospital on Sydney's outskirts while helping treat a rescued koala affected with a disease (疾病).
Disease among the koalas, bushfires, drought, cutting down of forest, and loss of urban habitat are some of the many destructive forces that continue to threaten their survival. These forces, a government report warned in June, could make Australia's symbolic animal extinct in New South Wales-the nation's most populous state — by 2050.
The country's worst summer of bushfires in a generation destroyed more than 11.2 million hectares, nearly half the area of the United Kingdom, putting the gray, tree-hugging animals into the center of national conservation (保护)and a hot political issue. In New South Wales, at least 5,000 koalas were killed in the fires that burned 80 percent of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and 24 percent of koala habitat on public land, the government's June report said.
New state laws have sought to limit the ability of farmers to clear land considered important for koala habitat, setting off a political debate between urban conservationists and people in the bush who wanted to manage their land. The rate of tree-clearing and loss of habitats are behind all of the other factors that threaten them in those developed areas which include dog attacks and vehicle accidents," said Kellie Leigh, head of Science for Wildlife, a nonprofit conservation organization.
