KOALA BEAR AWARENESS!

Hi everyone! Sorry for not posting in a while. So, I typically like to make this blog about encouraging others to find their true potential, be content with themselves, and to talk about my own stories since after all it is my blog. ;) Anyways, today though I want to talk about a different topic that caught my eye. Last night, I couldn't sleep and I was surfing the web on my phone. I came across this animal quiz. Silly, I know, but this is what happens when it is 3 o'clock and you are WIDE AWAKE. So, anyways the game would show a super up-close image of an animal, and you had to choose which animal it was. Throughout this game, which I was surprisingly rather good at, each time you got the correct animal, it would show a fact. When I got to the koala bear, I read something that completely surprised me! So, I got to reading. BET THIS WILL SHOCK YOU….. DID YOU KNOW that koala bears are endangered because they are becoming infected with Chlamydia!? Yes chlamydia, I was in utter shock! How can such a cute animal obtain such a disease? A disease that it is making the koalas develop eye and bladder problems, and ultimately making some koala bears completely infertile. Baby Koalas can contract the disease even from feeding off their mothers…..The koala bear population in Australia truly is in DANGER. I then started googling more, and this is what I came across…

Not only are these cute cuddly looking animals contracting chlamydia, but they are also being infected by AIDS or rather known as KIDS. KIDS stand for Koala Immune Deficiency Syndrome. I was mind boggled! Not only had I never heard of animals being susceptible to such diseases, but why had I never heard anything about this? KIDS is very similar to AIDS, which makes the immune system weaker and the animals more susceptible to cancer and other deadly infections. However though, it "affects koala's more quickly." Over the past 6 years, the population in Australia has decreased from 100,000 to 43,000 koalas. At the moment, there isn't, and they don't know if there ever will be, a vaccine to cure these poor little animals. Besides a few animal hospitals trying to nurture them back to life, nothing is being done to protect these amazing creatures!! Koalas are not only in danger of contracting potential deadly diseases, but in grave danger due to deforestation. By tearing down their homes, they are more prone to being attacked by dogs and getting hit by cars. We must TAKE A STAND AND SPREAD AWARENESS to try and help to make a difference. Koalas can't create vaccines to cure themselves OR keep people from cutting down their homes. THE KOALAS BEARS FUTURE IS IN OUR HANDS. We must take a stand and fight for them, otherwise they could go extinct in the next 30 years as CNN states. If we keep waiting to take a stand, it will be too late to help them!!

I am attaching a website below where you can find out more about koala bears, and how to make a difference! Also, I am including the sources below as well. If you want to read more about it on your own.

Thanks for reading, and let’s make a difference together! :)

-TO DONATE, ADOPT A KOALA, OR PLANT A TREE:  https://www.savethekoala.com

-CNN:  http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/13/australia.koalas/index.html

-NY POST:  https://nypost.com/2017/02/22/std-is-ravaging-populations-of-this-endangered-koala/