Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital vet urges policy rethink to stop healed koalas being returned to danger zones Staff at Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital say rehabilitated koalas should not be returned to dangerous environments. STAFF at Australia's largest wildlife hospital are sick of healing injured koalas only to have them returned to hostile environments where many die. Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital senior veterinarian, Dr Amber Gillett, has called for a rethink on the State Government policy that relocates rehabilitated koalas within a 5km radius of where they were found. Dr Gillett said putting the animals back in areas with busy roads, development and high numbers of domestic dogs could be a death sentence. The Sunshine Coast hinterland hospital, which tags its patients, was seeing many koalas returning time and time again with fresh injuries. She said there needed to be more flexibility within the guidelines to allow the animals to be transferred to safer environments. It is very frustrating for us. A lot of effort and thousands of dollars goes in to saving these animals, with money from donations and the zoo. We then put them back into an area where potentially it's high risk and find out that they've died. Dr Gillett said the wildlife hospital at Beerwah had seen 45 koalas admitted this month, a number with "trauma injuries" from being hit by a car, or attacked by dogs. She said this soon would double to 100 a month as the marsupials became more active during their breeding season. A simple way people living in areas with koalas can help is to make sure they restrain their dogs at night. Motorists also should slow down ... this would save more koalas.