The koala bear, Australia's national icon, is on the verge of extinction, say wildlife experts and researchers. Wildlife detection dogs that can identify koala bears, and therefore their population, are one of the techniques being used to detect how low the density of this species actually is. The community of koala bears has reduced more than ten times in Australia. Science for Wildlife is working for the conservation of koala bears that are being pushed towards extinction in the mountain regions, due to natural calamities. Once the population of this national treasure gets mapped, community protection groups can help protect and rehabilitate them.

Perhaps it's this mystical quality that's ingrained the animal in the Australian psyche; koalas are a national treasure. But they're not bears. Let's just get that out of the way. Like the vast majority of other native Australian mammals, they're marsupials, the last extant species of the family Phascolarctos.

But their claws are bear-like nonetheless: long and sharp to enable them to cling to the eucalyptus trees they inhabit along eastern stretches of New South Wales and deep into Queensland, and throughout the forests of southern Victoria.

The eucalyptus leaves they feed on aren't very nutritious, so they have to eat a lot of them to achieve not very much at all; they spend around 20 hours a day relaxing in the treetops. Indeed, the name koala is derived from the Dharug people's word gula, meaning 'no drink', since they so rarely appear on the ground, it appears they have no need for water. In fact, their diet of leaves has a high water content, enabling them to stay up in the canopy.