68 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



"The Wild Life Preservation Society of Australia is also wisely 

 working away with the object of establishing Koala Colonies in 

 such places as the Jenolan Caves Sanctuary, Lindfield Park, and 

 Davidson Park in New South Wales the State authorities must, 

 however, be persuaded to guarantee some security for the animals 

 established therein." 



The cause of the Koala is eloquently pleaded by Troughton 

 (1932a, p. 192) : 



"The Koala ... is utterly harmless everywhere, and what a 

 delight it would be for both young and old if they were plentiful 

 enough to haunt the suburbs and homesteads as possums often do. 

 They seek only the freedom of the trees, and if the continued 

 slaughter of such innocents leads to their extermination, it must 

 inevitably appear to later generations as an indictment of the 

 cultural degradation of our time." 



Queensland Koala 



PHASCOLARCTOS CINEREUS ADUSTUS Thomas 



Phascolarctos cinereus adustus Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, vol. 11, 

 p. 246, 1923. ("0 Bil Bil, near Mimdubbera," Eidsvold, South Queensland.) 



FIGS.: Faulkner, Australian Zool., vol. 3, pt. 3, pi. 16, 1923; Le Souef and 

 Burrell, 1926, fig. 77. 



Up to 15 or 20 years ago, the Queensland Koala must have 

 numbered well over a million individuals; quite possibly there 

 were several millions. But disease and more especially the fur 

 trade have reduced it to a remnant of its former numbers. 



It is smaller than P. c. cinereus; fur shorter; anterior back suf- 

 fused with dull rufous or tawny; ears far less thickly hairy, the 

 inner surface almost naked; under parts lighter; the prominent 

 groin patches rather browner and less rufous. Head and body, 

 600 mm. (Thomas, 1923, p. 246.) 



In former times it seems to have ranged over practically all 

 the more southerly and easterly parts of Queensland, north to 

 Inkerman (lat. 19 30') and west to the Diamantina and Cooper 

 River basins (about long. 143). (See map, Victorian Nat., vol. 51, 

 no. 3, p. 80, 1934.) 



"The Queensland Minister for Agriculture has said that in 

 1919-1930 no fewer than ... a million native bears were slaugh- 

 tered in Queensland. If this slaughter continues these poor animals 

 will be exterminated." (Gregory, 1921, p. 65.) 



"Koalas . . . are now getting numerous again in Southern Queens- 

 land" (Le Souef, 1923, p. 109). 



"In 1924, the colossal total of over two million skins of the 

 Koala or Native Bear were exported and mainly sold under the 



