Koalas are now on Australia’s endangered species list, the country’s government declared Friday. Drought and habitat loss have left the animals bereft, as have the extreme wildfires that have devastated the country in recent years and charred more than 47 million acres. A stunning 30 percent of koalas, national icons of the land down under, have died since 2018 throughout the country, with roughly 58,000 left. A government investigation found that the koalas could be extinct by 2050 without greater protection in spite of 74 million Australian dollars spent on their conservation since 2019. Sussan Ley, the country’s minister for the environment, said Australia would take “unprecedented action to protect the koala.”
