The Koala was hunted almost to extinction in the early 20th century, largely for its fur. Millions of furs were traded to Europe and the United States, and the population has not fully recovered from such decimations. Extensive cullings occurred in Queensland in 1915, 1917 and again in 1919 when over one million Koalas were killed with guns, poisons and nooses. The public outcry over the cullings was most likely the first wide-scale environmental issue that rallied Australians. Despite the growing movement to protect native species, the drought of 1926–28 lead to the another 600,000 Koalas being killed during a one-month open season in August 1927.
has declared the Koala a threatened species, however the Australian government has not. A review of the species national conservation status concluded that the Koala is not threatened at a national scale, with a population that numbers in the hundreds of thousands. This was the third review undertaken by the federal government that came to this conclusion. Other studies have estimated as few as 80,000 Koalas left in the wild, and the Australian Koala Foundation estimates there are around 100,000. The IUCN lists the species as "Lower Risk / Near Threatened".
