Koalas threatened by ‘leather leaves’ - April 07, 2008
Personally I’m becoming a little inured to stories about climate change killing off species.
There’s also an issue that it’s easier to write the ‘cute thing might disappear’ than to follow up later with a conclusive answer. (See Andrew Revikin’s recent blog on frogs for more on this; John Fleck thinks it may in part be Nature’s fault.)
With that in mind this story should be caveated by saying there doesn’t seem to be a peer-reviewed paper behind it. It’s ticked all the other boxes for media coverage though: cute animal, concerned scientists, slow news week...
Down under, Koalas are facing up to a food problem. Increasing levels of carbon dioxide seem to change eucalyptus leaves from an already not very nutritious snack to the koala-equivalent of total junk.
“What we’re seeing, essentially, is that the staple diet of these animals is being turned to leather,” Bill Foley, a researcher at the Australian National University, told The Australian. “Life is set to become extremely difficult for these animals.”
Given eucalyptus leaves are normally pretty rubbish food anyway a further reduction in their usefulness could be devastating for the fat little furballs.
The paper says another researcher, from James Cook University, has been growing eucalyptus in greenhouses with increased levels of carbon dioxide. The result: less nice nutrients and protein and more nasty tannins.
What’s not clear from the article, or any of those that have followed it up, is whether the levels used in the greenhouse represent current or predicted future levels of carbon dioxide. Either way, koalas are already in trouble, so this seems like more bad news.
On the bigger issue, here’s a promise I’m probably going to regret. At the end of the year I’ll look out every ‘species X threatened by climate change’ story I’ve put on this blog and ask an expert what the current science looks like.
Image: Getty