Australia’s Koalas Threatened By Global Warming
Australia’s Koalas are being threatened by rising carbon dioxide pollution in the atmosphere. Their survival is at stake because the Eucalyptus leaves they feed on are losing their nutrients from the worsening air quality.
In fact, rising carbon dioxide are making the plants become toxic because they start producing “anti-nutrients” which interfere with the digestion of regular nutrients. Some species of Eucalyptus contain a high protein content, but when higher levels of anti-nutrients are present they bind to them and make digesting protein not possible by the Koalas.
Koala’s only eat the leaves from about 25 Eucalyptus species out of the 600 species in Australia. If carbon dioxide emissions continue to be released in the atmosphere at the current rate then there will be a significant loss in Australia’s Koala population within 50 years.
