No mercy killing

Deferring death: a koala feedi AROUND 2,000 teddy bear-like, adorable
koalas, which could have possibly been
killed, have won a reprieve. A boom in,
the koala population on Kangaroo
Island, 160 kin southwest of Adelaide,
forced South Australia's
national parks and wildlife
service to tome to a painful
decision of either having to kill
the koalas or relocate them.
However, environmental outrage across Australia and other
countries have stalled the decision. But wildlife authorities
agreed on March 19 to a possible relocation of the swelling
number of koalas to the neighbouring state of New South
Wales.

The koala population
Swung so high that there were hardly any eucalyptus trees - the animals' main diet - left on the island to
feed them. This could have soon led to
mass starvation among the koalas. But
as animal rights activist Deborah Tabart
of the Australian Koala Foundation
puts it: "We don't think there are
too many koalas. We think there are too
few trees."