Thammasat University students and others conscious of preserving nature and the environment may be interested in the Koalas of Bangkok campaign.

On the third floor of the Bangkok Arts and Culture Centre, at The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) headquarters, and other locations, koala plush dolls will be sold as a fundraising effort.

The Thammasat University Library collection includes a film about the natural history of koalas. 

It may be viewed at the Rewat Bhuddinan Media Center of the Pridi Banomyong Library and also at the Educational Media Service Center of the Puey Ungphakorn Library, Rangsit campus.

The Koalas of Bangkok campaign is meant to raise awareness of wildlife affected by bushfires in Australia and in other nations.

Proceeds will go to the largest Australian wildlife rescue organization, New South Wales Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES).

Its homepage explains:

Catastrophic fires, severe drought and extreme weather events are taking a tragic toll on native wildlife. Hundreds of fires raging for months have burnt over 5.4 million hectares of land in NSW alone and over 18.6 million hectares nationally, 20% of Australian forests have been lost. It is impossible to know how many animals have perished but it’s been conservatively estimated that over 800 million animals have been impacted in NSW and over 1 billion animals in Australia since September.

No-one knows yet what the toll has been on wild populations, whether species thought to be common now need to be reclassified and whether hundreds of species at risk of extinction have survived. For some surviving animals, unprecedented actions to preserve the future of their species may be required. Due to the horrific fires, drought and extreme weather, surviving animals are also facing ongoing challenges due to lack of food, water and habitat.

• Wildlife Rescue 7 days a week, 365 days a year

WIRES mission is to actively rehabilitate and preserve Australian wildlife and inspire others to do the same.

WIRES (NSW Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service Inc.) has been rescuing and caring for wildlife for over 30 years and is the largest wildlife rescue organisation in Australia. WIRES currently has 3,000 volunteers in 28 NSW branches involved in the rescue and care of wildlife and we have a dedicated Rescue Office that operates 365 days a year assisting the community to help native animals in distress.

WIRES is passionate about supporting smaller volunteer organisations in the wildlife sector with the same mission, as well as Universities, Veterinary Associations and other leading scientific and environmental groups. In the last 5 years WIRES has been working with organisations including: WWF, National Parks Association, Humane Society International, The Wilderness Society, Nature Conservation Council, Birdlife, RSPCA, Animal Welfare League and IFAW and we thank these organisations for their significant ongoing contribution to the wildlife rehabilitation sector.

Currently WIRES presence is primarily in NSW where we responding to more than 90,000 rescues each year, we also receive around 170,000 calls to our 1300 WIRES line annually, including thousands of interstate calls. WIRES also plays a major role in community wildlife education with traditionally hundreds of thousands of unique visitors to our website annually which increased to over 1 million unique visitors in just the first week of January 2020.

In response to the tragic toll of the catastrophic fires and drought on wildlife, WIRES is actively pursuing significant opportunities to help wildlife more broadly across Australia, including partnering on projects to improve long-term outcomes for native animals.

About koalas

As all TU students know, the koala is a marsupial native to Australia. It is found in coastal areas of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It is easily recognisable by its stout, tailless body and large head with round, fluffy ears and large, spoon-shaped nose.

Koalas typically live in open eucalypt woodlands, and eat the leaves of these trees. Because this diet has limited nutritional content, koalas sleep up to 20 hours daily.

The word koala derives from the Aboriginal term gula, meaning no water. The word gula is in the Sydney language, an Australian Aboriginal language that was traditionally spoken in the region of Sydney, New South Wales. It is the traditional language of the Darug and Eora peoples.

Since koalas were not seen to descend from trees frequently, it was sometimes believed that they did not drink water. In fact, eucalyptus tree leaves have high water content, so koalas do not require much additional water.

In previous years, koalas were sometimes mistakenly called koala bears, because it was considered that they look like bears. Biologically, however, they are not related to bears.

Dangers for koalas

One of the reasons that bushfires are especially dangerous for koalas is that they move slowly and the eucalypt trees that they live in burn easily. Also, if a tree is on fire, the koala’s instinct is to run higher in the tree, where it can get into even more trouble.

As elsewhere in the world, climate change is also an issue for the health and thriving of the koala population.

According to the Australian Government Department of Health, the Australian bushfire season in 2019 and 2020 resulted in the deaths of over 8,000 koalas or 30% of the local population on New South Wales’s mid-north coast.

Even when koalas are assisted by well-meaning humans, some difficulties may occur. For example, sometimes people try to give koalas water to drink from a bottle, but koalas do not know how to drink from a bottle and may get water in their lungs. The best way to give a koala water is in a bowl or cup that they can drink from.

Thailand counteracting wildfires

As TU students will remember, earlier this month it was announced that Phu Kradueng National Park in Isan Province will be closed until September this year to recover from a recent wildfire, the environment minister said Monday.

In August 2019, fires destroyed forests and farmlands in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

As the website of the Forest Fire Control Division of the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department states:

Forest fires in Thailand annually occur during the dry season from December to May with their peak in February-March. Fires, Mostly classified as surface fires, mainly take place in; Mixed Deciduous Forest, Dry Dipterocarp Forest, and Forest Plantations, and to some extent in Dry Evergreen Forest, Hill Evergreen Forest or event in some parts of the Tropical Rain Forest. In certain extremely dry sites, double burning in one season is common. These surface fires consume surface litter, other loose debris on the forest floor and small vegetation.

Research on the website of The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Forest fire in the context of territorial rights in northern Thailand by Atchara Rakyutidharm of the Information and Policy Advocacy Department of the Northern Development Foundation in Chiang Mai, further investigates the complexity of fire prevention in the context of societal factors.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)