Koalas are being given birth control to fight overpopulation

By Donna Lu

Koalas in elements of Australia have been sterilised and given long-term contraceptives to manage overpopulation – and it appears to have labored.

David Ramsey on the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Analysis in Melbourne, Australia, and his colleagues have analysed the impact of two fertility control programmes on koala populations in areas the place the animals have bred too efficiently, risking hunger.

The researchers studied a programme applied between 2004 and 2013 in Budj Bim Nationwide Park, Victoria, wherein feminine koalas had been captured and handled with an implant of levonorgestrel …