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https://theconversation.com/testing-the-stress-levels-of-rescued-koalas-allows-us-to-tweak-their-care-so-more-survive-in-the-wild-196224>
"Koalas have adapted to Australia’s rugged terrains. But bushfires, land
clearing and other extreme threats can mean they suffer prolonged stress – and
this has a significant effect on their wellbeing.
Stress can make koalas more vulnerable to disease, suppresses their
reproduction and can ultimately lead to their death.
My research team, The Stress Lab, has been monitoring koalas and other wildlife
across Australia over the past decade. We’ve noted high stress levels in
rescued koalas, which creates additional challenges for clinical recovery. In
fact, chronically stressed and diseased koalas in clinical care are often
euthanised, rather than released back in the wild.
In our new paper, we gauged the effectiveness of a commercially available
stress test kit widely used for more than 100 species worldwide, including
humans. We found the test did indeed provided reliable, valuable data on koala
stress levels in under two hours.
This is a really positive finding, because it validates an off-the-shelf tool
to help save koalas from extinction. We hope our research will help koala
rescuers and clinicians better determine whether koalas in care are overly
stressed by a particular intervention, and change their care tactic
accordingly."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
