"The forests and forest fires together have left very little of their natural habitat, and it takes months for the eucalyptus to recover," Deborah Tabart, president of the Australian Koala Foundation, told the Daily Mail.

In addition to the fires and felling, extended drought and diseases on the eucalyptus trees have also led to a difficult situation for the koalas. Today, there are believed to be fewer than 80,000 of them in the vast country, but other estimates indicate that there may be as few as 43,000.

According to experts, there is a risk that the koalas are too few to actually produce healthy new generations in the longer term, Forbes reports.

Great risk of starvation

The fires have destroyed numerous eucalyptus trees. The leaves of the trees are the main source of nutrition for the koalas and an adult koala can eat close to one kilo of leaves per day. The trees will grow back after the fire but it will take several months, which means that there is a great risk that many koalas will starve.

Many koala organizations have received a boost in their fundraising efforts to help the animals after videos showing people rescuing the koala from the fires have gone viral.

Koalas are found in eastern Australia, in the states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.