Koalas, ravaged by wildfires and habitat loss, could become extinct in Australia's New South Wales by the year 2050, according to a new government report.

The prediction is based on a year-long study launched just a few months before devastating wildfires burned more than 40,000 square miles of land, much of it in New South Wales.

"Many koala populations were suffering terribly through drought conditions that had plagued NSW for years, exacerbated by climate change," Cate Faehrmann, a member of the New South Wales Parliament who chaired the study, wrote in the foreword. "Then came the fires."

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Huge swaths of koala habitat were burned, with as much as 81% disappearing in some locations.

An estimated 5,000 koalas were lost and the animals, long an iconic symbol of Australia, became the international face of the fires.

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The marsupials, including those in New South Wales, were already faced with dwindling habitat and lack of food and water thanks to hot, dry weather.

"With the trees dying and the streams drying there is a recipe for disaster," Philip Spark, a wildlife ecologist, told the government committee that oversaw the study. "Koalas are really on the brink of not surviving … Koalas and other exposed wildlife are on the brink. A crisis can happen with very little warning."

Eucalyptus trees are a staple of the koala's diet. The trees' leaves aren't just a source of food, but also a source of water. Images of koalas emerging from their natural habitat to drink from garden hoses and water bowls have become common in recent years as eucalyptus has disappeared, especially during the wildfires.

The 311-page government report takes note of the fact that no one really knows for sure how many koalas were in the wild in New South Wales before the wildfires, calling a government estimate of 36,000 "outdated and unreliable."

A separate report before the fires last year from the Australian Koala Foundation estimated there were about 80,000 koalas left in Australia overall, and warned the population was becoming too small to breed enough healthy offspring to produce another generation.

The animals don't live anywhere else in the world.

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