
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 15, 1994                   TAG: 9401150188
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA                                LENGTH: Short

KOALAS FACING DEVASTATION DUE TO FIRES

Colonies of koalas, the teddy bear-like animals who live in the Australian forest, have been decimated by the huge bushfires that swept the southeast of the country.

Volunteers said they have found charred bodies of the slow-moving animals on ash-covered forest floors. Others were found fused to blackened tree trunks.

A few escaped the flames but face a bleak future because supplies of eucalyptus tree leaves, their sole source of food and moisture, were burned.

"The possibility of local extinction in some places is very real," said Deborah Tarbart, the foundation's executive director.

by CNB