Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) are suffering population declines from chlamydia disease, habitat loss, dog attacks, and vehicle collisions — with the 2019-2020 bushfires causing catastrophic welfare harm across eastern Australia.
Chlamydia in koalas causes progressive, painful disease — urinary tract infection causing incontinence ("wet bottom"), reproductive tract disease causing infertility, and ocular disease causing blindness that prevents koalas from navigating their arboreal environment effectively. Affected animals deteriorate over months. Burned koalas from bushfire events suffer severe burn injuries to feet and hands from the burning ground and trees — injuries that require weeks of wound care and are enormously painful. Dog attack injuries include internal organ damage, spinal injury, and severe lacerations. Each category of welfare harm affecting koalas is connected to human activity — habitat clearing that forces koalas into urban areas, domestic dogs that attack them, and climate change that drives increasingly severe bushfire seasons.