National Koala Monitoring Program

Transcript

Dr Andrew Hoskins: The National Koala Monitoring Program is using the best technology and analytics to come up with the best estimates we can of koala populations and distributions right around the country.

We can do this using thermal drones, looking for koalas from above, or looking for koala poos using things like detection dogs.

We also use acoustic recorders which let us hear koalas in the environment, or we can use our eyes and just walk around looking for them and counting them ourselves.

We also have citizen science apps that we are able to use that lets anybody come out, look for koalas and spot them and bring that information back into the National Koala Monitoring Program.

Sunny Behzadnia: National Koala Monitoring Program is an Australia wide initiative aimed at improving our understanding of the koala population across the country.

Think of it as a national census for koalas.

We're trying to figure out how many are out there, how many koalas are moving around and how the population are changing over time.

The information gathered through this program helps us make better decisions for koala conservation.

Dr Samantha Munroe: With the National Koala Monitoring Program, we are working to ensure that koalas are effectively monitored across their entire range.

This includes dense forests to more isolated areas where they can be harder to track.

To achieve this, we collaborate across all parts of the Australian community, including government agencies, researchers, community groups and First Nations people.

Our goal is to co-design an inclusive program that provides robust long term data on koala populations.

We support this with the latest generation of scientific methods and digital technologies to make gathering useful and usable data on koalas as simple and as easy as possible.

Dr Andrew Hoskins: We're really trying to make sure we can look at all of the different monitoring approaches and technologies that are out there for koalas, and use them in a best practice way to allow us to to tell that national story of the koala.