It takes a village to raise a koala

It is not a “set and forget” situation when it comes to protecting the koala population of Redlands Coast.

Redland City Council collaborates with research organisations, government agencies, education groups, and, importantly, local residents, to keep an eye on our city’s koalas on an ongoing basis.

Mayor Jos Mitchell said the more detailed data Council and its partners had on koala population dynamics and density, the better equipped they were to implement targeted koala conservation activities.

“Protecting our koalas from harm requires a lot of time being out there in their habitats and physically checking on their health,” she said.

“Existing technology and emerging ways of capturing data are constantly in use or being trialled as part of our innovative koala conservation strategy.

“Council and our koala research team welcomes the help of the community and citizen scientists in keeping track of our koalas.”

The community can report koala sightings via the Redlands Coast Koala Watch Bicollect hub or by using the BioCollect mobile app that you can download to your mobile phone.

As well as the BioCollect app, Council has another koala sighting app that it is currently trialling. Council is working closely with the CSIRO and University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) on a trial program where Redlands Coast ambassador koalas have been fitted with solar-powered Bluetooth ear tags that pair to the CSIRO Koala Spotter app.

Ambassador koalas live in the city’s four designated koala safe neighbourhoods – in Ormiston, Birkdale. Thornlands and Mount Cotton – each neighbourhood has two to six tagged koalas that are monitored.

Council has an online map (see link below) that shows the most recent location of each ambassador koala, along with their name, home range, back story and photos.

Community members trialling the CSIRO Koala Spotter app on their mobile phone scan for an ambassador koala’s Bluetooth tag. If the koala is within 30 to 70 metres of the spotter, it will register on the app and the sighting can then be recorded as part of the Koala Watch data.

USC Detection Dogs for Conservation research teams head out about every two weeks to track and check on the health of each of the koalas and analyse their movement patterns. Their findings are also reflected in the online map.

Council’s Threatened Species Program Adviser (Koala Conservation), Dr Cathryn Dexter said Council undertakes citywide koala genetic surveys every two to three years.

“The first survey in 2018 was to establish a baseline on the genetic health of our koala population,” Dr Dexter said.

“We undertook another survey in 2020-2021 and the University of Sunshine Coast’s Detection Dogs for Conservation research team are currently in the field undertaking genetic surveys, repeating the same methods as previously employed on both private and public land.

“It is expected that after three citywide surveys across the past six years – equivalent to a koala generation – this data will provide enough combined information to advance a more robust estimate of our current koala population’s health and abundance.

“Population estimates are very tricky and take years of consistent monitoring to get a reliable estimation.”

Council had been partnering with USC since the first survey in 2018 with the USC research team also conducting annual koala drone and detection dog surveys. To give consistency to the data collection, the surveys are conducted from Redlands Coast’s 14 sentinel sites which are selected reference points across the city.

The dogs can scent fresh koala scat (droppings) and lead researchers directly to where the koalas are. Researchers collect the scats for DNA analysis and assess the koala’s health.

“Annual monitoring of sentinel sites helps Council gain data on population dynamics and trends such as health, male to female ratio, and the number of individuals present on the site,” Dr Dexter said.

To join the koala community and learn more about koalas on Redlands Coast and how you can help them, go to Council’s koala conservation page at redland.qld.gov.au/koala

To view the koala ambassador map, go to Council’s Koala Safe Neighbourhoods page.

If you spot a sick or injured koala, call Redlands 24-hour Wildlife Rescue Service on (07) 3833 4031.