Topic summary
Functionally extinct
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Functional extinction.
Functionally extinct species in modern times
On May 10, 2019, the Australian Koala Foundation issued a press release that opened with the sentence "The Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) believes Koalas may be functionally extinct in the entire landscape of Australia." The press release was reported by multiple news agencies worldwide, most of which repeated the AKF's statement. Despite this, koalas are not currently considered functionally extinct; while their population has decreased, the IUCN Red List lists them only as "Vulnerable". The AKF's press release was released on the eve of the 2019 elections in Australia, where topics such as climate change were major issues.