2021
Max was up at the attic when he saw some old journals. He picked up one and while he was reading it, he realized it was his great-grandfather's.1927
“Koko, have you seen mom? I haven’t seen her since 6 hours ago!”, asked my sister worriedly as we were getting to sleep in the morning. I told her last I saw her, she was down the field with some of her friends. My sister said she’ll go and find her as I got ready to sleep. Most likely our mom probably got caught up too much with all the gossips to remember the time.I woke up to someone crying. It was my sister. “Lora, what happened?”, I asked. She didn’t say anything but gestured me to follow her. We both climbed down the tree, my heart beating furiously as I could feel the melancholy surrounding my sister. We both stopped at a bush and I could hear humans laughing at the other side. My sister looked at me and signed at me to stay quiet. I wanted to tell her I didn’t want to know anymore but it was too late as she lifted a branch. My knees buckled at the sight and my heart stopped. All I could remember before my vision turned black, was my mom’s beautiful fur in between other koala’s furs on top of a cart.
It was dark times those months as my sister and I would hide to safety when we knew there were humans around as our home became a hunting ground for them to kill my kind for sport and our fur for trading.
We rejoiced and cried happy tears when we learned that Government had banned the practice but we mourned and cried for our 800,000 fallen koalas.
Max didn’t realize he was crying as well until he saw a few tears wetting the pages of the old book. He quickly wiped his tears before it did more damage and continued reading.
1929
I was fighting off tears as I watched my sister lying down on the ground. I knew I was going to lose her anytime today from a disease going around with some of our kin. She lost a lot of weight in a few months, difficulty in walking as she bad cramps on her tummy and would cry everytime she peed. I focused back my attention to her as she called my name. “I’m here Lora.” She tried to locate where she heard my voice. This sickness or whatever disease was called had also turned her blind. I sucked in a breath for strength and took her paw against mine. She held on tight as she stared into nothing. She whispered she loved me and gave me whispers of encouragement to live on. She smiled for the first time in months, looking so serene. I knew then my sister had joined my mom. I was alone.Max stopped reading when he heard his mom calling for dinner. He put the journal back to where it was and mulled over the hard times his great-grandfather experienced. He also knew what disease it was that took his sister’s life. Chlamydia. Its a deathly disease for Koala’s leaving them blind, severe bladder inflammation, infertility and death. He sat down on the table while his mom prepared dinner and his dad prepared the table. He told them about the book upstairs at the attic. Max’s dad told him more stories of how it wasn’t just all hardships and his great-grandfather was able to find happiness in the end leading for them to be here right now in the present. Max asked his dad how he met his mom. His dad looked at his wife, taking him back to 3 years ago.
2019
“Trey! Wake up! We need to get out of here fast!”, my mom yelled, shaking my body to wake me up. I woke up startled but quickly ran out of the room when I understood the panic from my mom’s voice. Our forest got caught on fire. Mother Nature has been tough on us this years, the earth becoming so dry that a bolt of lightning could spark a huge bushfire and the wind spreading the flames across the forest. This is what has happened to our forest now. The wind was blowing so hard that it carried the flames creating an inferno in Australia causing a lot of animals to die from the heat and flames. We tried to ran as fast as we could away from the fire. I heard a scream and I gasped in horror seeing a female koala’s leg getting burnt. I ran up to her and quickly scooped some dirt on her to put out the fire. It was then I heard the sires of the firefighters coming in. We both sighed in relief. Help was here.“Dad? So, how did you meet mom?”, Max asked his dad.
Max’s dad just smiled and said, “All I can tell you son, is when I met your mom. She was smoking hot.”
•In 1900’s, an estimate of 8 million koala’s were killed for fur trade.
•About 40% of the koala’s population have chlamydia, although not all react well with antibiotics.
•Cars and dogs kill some 4,000 of the tree-climbing Aussie icons every year.
•a 71 per cent decline in koala’s population across six locations in northern NSW, burned in bushfires.
Koala’s numbers have greatly decreased over the number of years leading them to be critically endangered and possible extinct by the year 2050. Let us hope we humans do our best to save this species from that happening.
Sources:
https://www.savethekoala.com/about-koalas/the-koala-endangered-or-not/
https://www.savethekoala.com/about-koalas/interesting-facts/
