Koalas are re-entering the wild.
Months after Australian brushfires ravaged the continent’s koala populations, the endangered critters are finally returning home.
Sydney-based wildlife conservation organization Science for Wildlife announced Monday that four rescued adult koalas and one baby joey would, at last, be released back into the New South Wales national park Kanangra-Boyd.
“While they have coped well in care, we are delighted to finally send our koalas home,” Kellie Leigh, executive director of the not-for-profit conservation group, said in a statement.
The marsupials’ rerelease was timed significantly to the weather, with human caregivers wanting to be sure the fur babies had enough to eat once on their own again.
“We have been busy assessing the burnt area that we rescued them from, to establish when the conditions have improved enough that the trees can support them again,” said Leigh. “The recent rains have helped and there is now plenty of new growth for them to eat, so the time is right.”
They will be radio-tracked to ensure they “settle in OK.”
The koalas are among a group of 12 that were saved from the fires and had been living at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo since January, while they and their environment recuperated. The remaining koalas will be released soon, according to Mashable — and faster than planned in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
While the released koalas are a small group, researchers are hopeful they will help begin rehabilitating the species’ decimated population.
“There is still a lot of work to be done to assess what is left of koalas in this region and plan for population recovery,” said Jen Tobey, a population sustainability researcher at San Diego Zoo Global, a non-profit which partnered on the international conservation project. “We are dedicated to continuing to support this critical work to conserve a significant koala population.”