First Koala Joey Born in Australian Reptile Park After Devastating Bushfires Signals Hope

Mother and baby jeep2499/Shutterstock

An Australian wildlife park has welcomed its first baby koala since bushfires decimated the region’s koala population, killing thousands. Park staff have named the joey “Ash” in honor of the countless casualties of the fires.

Staff are hailing the joey as “a sign of hope for the future of Australia’s native wildlife.”

According to Dan Rumsey, a zookeeper at the Australian Reptile Park in New South Wales, a koala joey remains in its mother’s pouch for around six months. The Reptile Park waited patiently until May 26 for their first glimpse of the baby marsupial, which was born at the park in January 2020.

The park shared heartwarming footage on social media of one of their zookeepers interacting with Ash as she poked her head out from her mother’s pouch.

The caption read: “We have a very special announcement... Our very first koala of the season has popped out of Mom’s pouch to say hello! Keepers have decided to name her Ash! Ash is the first koala born at the park since the tragic Australian bushfires and is a sign of hope for the future of Australia’s native wildlife.”

Zookeeper Rumsey called baby Ash and mother Rosie “ambassadors” for all the koalas that suffered in the fires.

“They’re ambassadors for koalas in the wild, the ones who truly suffered in the bushfires,” Rumsey told news.com.au.

“Koalas are iconic,” he said, “and even though ours are bred in captivity we like to think we’re helping the fairly decimated population.”

The footage released by the park has since been widely shared by the news channels and social media, bringing hope to millions in the wake of the devastating loss of wildlife in the 2019–2020 bushfire season.

Ash belongs to a tentative yet growing population of baby koalas born in captivity in 2020 so far; recently, Taronga Zoo, Wildlife Sydney, and Melbourne Zoo have also announced the birth of baby koalas.

“Ash represents the start of what we’re hoping to be another successful breeding season,” Rumsey told the Australian news and entertainment website.

A sign indicating koala habitat stands in a burnt-out forest near the town of Taree, north of Sydney, on Nov. 14, 2019 WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images

One of the Australian Reptile Park’s 2020 ambitions is to surpass its 2019 birth toll of seven joeys, reported Daily Mail. Rosie and her baby, Ash, have successfully got the ball rolling; according to Rumsey, there are an additional three joeys in koala pouches elsewhere at the park.

According to the ministerial statement from the Australian Department of Home Affairs, over 12 million hectares of land were scorched during the 2019–2020 bushfire season. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that a total of around 1.25 billion animals lost their lives.

A press release from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in April 2020 indicated that there was an immediate threat of extinction to koalas as a result of the bushfires. According to the release, the New South Wales koala population suffered a decline of between 33 percent and 61 percent since 2001, with an estimate of 6,382 koalas killed in the 2019–2020 bushfire season.

An injured koala being treated for burns by a vet at a makeshift field hospital at Australia's Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park on Jan. 14, 2020 PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images

The IFAW press release stated that koalas are now eligible for provisional “Endangered” status under the New South Wales Biodiversity Conservation Act of 2016.

Koala joey Ash, and other baby koalas being welcomed in captivity across New South Wales, are providing a glimmer of hope for the future status of this beloved marsupial. As for the Australian Reptile Park, they are planning to reopen to the public on June 1 after a two-month lockdown.