Authorities Snipe Hundreds of Koalas From Helicopters in Controversial ‘Aerial Cull’ in Australia Between 600 and 700 of the marsupials were killed from the air, likely for the first time in the country’s history. Officials say the decision, which has prompted backlash, was made to minimize the animals’ suffering after a bushfire Officials say they made the decision to euthanize hundreds of koalas for the creatures' welfare after a bushfire in Victoria. Lisa Maree Williams / Getty Images Authorities in Australia are facing backlash after euthanizing hundreds of koalas by shooting them from helicopters. Government officials have killed between 600 and 700 koalas in Budj Bim National Park in southwest Victoria, reports Yahoo News Australia’s Michael Dahlstrom. They say they culled the animals because they were suffering as a result of a recent bushfire that swept through the national park in early March, after a lightning strike ignited the landscape. But critics argue that the koalas’ plight was exacerbated by decades of habitat mismanagement. Many koalas endured injuries, burns and smoke inhalation in the blaze, which burned approximately 5,436 acres, according to government officials. In addition, the fire destroyed a swath of manna gum trees, which are a primary source of food for the animals. The area is also experiencing a drought. Based on these factors, authorities say they determined that many koalas living in the national park needed to be euthanized for their welfare. They say they worked with a veterinarian, animal welfare experts and wildlife caretakers to make the decision. “The options were to just leave them to deteriorate or take proactive steps to reduce suffering by using aerial assessments,” says James Todd, the chief biodiversity officer for Victoria’s Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, to the Guardian’s Petra Stock. Authorities chose to kill the koalas by shooting them from helicopters after determining other methods were not feasible or appropriate. The area has rugged terrain, and the animals live high in the trees, which made it nearly impossible to reach them on foot. Officials were also concerned about the risks of falling trees after the fire. During an initial trial of the aerial culling method, a veterinarian studied the bodies of the euthanized koalas and confirmed they were in bad shape before their deaths. Authorities also determined during the test that aerial shooting was accurate and humane, per the Guardian. This marks the first time aerial culling has been used to euthanize koalas in Victoria, and it is likely also a first in all of Australia. “That decision [to perform aerial culling] is not taken lightly and we understand the optics of that,” Todd tells ABC Radio Melbourne’s Justin Smith. Wildlife experts and advocates are divided on whether aerial culling was the right thing to do. Lisa Maree Williams / Getty Images Authorities in helicopters assessed roughly 2,200 koalas individually using binoculars. They were able to fly within roughly 100 feet of the marsupials, Todd tells ABC Radio Melbourne. “What we found … is that a lot of animals are not reacting at all to the aircraft,” Todd tells ABC Radio Melbourne. “They’re showing lots of signs of burnt and singed fur. They’ve got brown, scruffy and matted fur, or missing fur. And they’ve got high levels of kinda non-traditional behavior. So, there were lots of koalas, for example, clustered in trees that have no canopy, and they’re very close to each other. So, all that is saying is that those animals are in a very poor state of health and prolonging their suffering will only just lead to more animal welfare issues.” But critics question whether aerial culling was the right choice. They wonder why government officials didn’t make more of an effort to rescue the koalas, and they’re concerned about the possibility that baby koalas—joeys—are now orphaned and fending for themselves. They also suspect that some of the koalas may have endured even more suffering if they were injured but not killed in the culling. Wildlife advocates also argue that looking at a koala through binoculars is not a reliable way to understand the creature’s health and well-being. “Blood tests need to be taken … they need to be weighed—that is how koalas need to be assessed before they’re euthanized,” Jess Robertson, president of the nonprofit Koala Alliance, tells ABC Radio Melbourne. “There is no way they could tell whether a koala is in a poor condition from a helicopter, and there’s no way that they can ensure that’s actually going to kill the koala, either.” Writing in the Conversation, University of Melbourne legal scholars Liz Hicks and Ashleigh Best raise the question of why Victoria officials didn’t deliver supplementary food, in the form of fresh gum leaves, to the national park while the forests recovered from the blaze. “The state government should take steps to avoid tragic incidents like this from happening again,” they write. However, given the extent of the fire’s devastation and the koalas’ injuries, some experts believe the government did the right thing. “They made the right call,” writes Desley Whisson, a wildlife ecologist at Deakin University in Australia, in a post on LinkedIn. “A call that was politically costly, and one they surely knew would spark backlash. But it was an act of mercy.” Koalas are listed as endangered in some parts of Australia but not others. They are protected in the states of New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. But in the southern states of South Australia and Victoria, officials say they are grappling with an overabundance of the marsupials. They say these large populations are harming the environment by over-browsing certain trees; the animals also face problems like low genetic diversity and disease. But wildlife advocates argue southern koalas do not have enough habitat because the government has allowed too much land to be cleared for logging and development. Victoria has more than 450,000 koalas, reports BBC Wildlife Magazine’s James Fair. In recent years, koalas living in the state have been gravitating toward commercial blue gum eucalyptus plantations for food. But when the plantations are harvested every 14 years, their resident koalas have few places left to go. Many end up crowding into Budj Bim National Park, which makes the impact of bushfires even worse. Spots like the national park are known as “habitat islands,” and they can easily become overpopulated, per the Conversation. The aerial culling incident is “just another one in the long line of mismanagement of the species and its habitat,” says Rolf Schlagloth, an ecologist at CQUniversity Australia, to Vox’s Benji Jones. “We can’t eliminate bushfires altogether, but more continuous, healthy forests can assist in reducing the risk and severity of fires,” he adds. “Koala habitat needs to be extensive and connected and the management of blue gum plantations needs to consider the koala as these trees are very attractive to them.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.