Koalas

Australia officially listed koalas across a swathe of its eastern coast as "endangered" on Feb. 11, with the marsupials fighting to survive the impact of bushfires, land-clearing, drought and disease.

Conservationists said koala populations had crashed in much of eastern Australia over the past two decades, warning that they were now sliding towards extinction.

The Australian government committed A$50 million to an emergency wildlife recovery program on Jan. 13, calling the bushfires crisis engulfing the country "an ecological disaster" that threatens several species, including koalas and rock wallabies.   

The fires led to the deaths of half the koalas living in a reserve in New South Wales. The fire season began earlier this year and has already destroyed two-thirds of the habitats of animals in the nature reserve, according to Reuters.

Hundreds of koalas are threatened to burn in a growing fire on Australia's east coast, wildlife advocates said.

The fire, thought to have been caused by a thunderstorm, raging Saturday about 400 kilometres north of Sydney, has devastated an area of ​​more than 4,942 acres. Authorities are still fighting to control it.