Researchers looking for signs of koalas on the Northern Tablelands are struggling to find the elusive marsupials, and they are calling on local landholders to let them know if there are koalas hiding on their country.
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“Early results from surveys on the ground show very sparse scat counts even in areas where koalas are regularly seen, and sightings of live koalas are proving even more rare,” ecologist, Dave Carr, from Stringybark Ecological said.
“We’ve been to properties with a lot of good habitat full of koala food trees, but there are very few signs of koalas.”
Dave Carr has been engaged to survey for koala habitat and to search for koala scats (koala droppings) in the Northern Tablelands Local Land Services region as part of the Cool Country Koala project.
People have also been keen to find out what they can do to help ensure their survival.
- Dave Carr
The project seeks to address the lack of reliable information about koala populations on the Northern Tablelands and to avert the decline of koala colonies in this region.
Jim and Wilma Swales allowed the researchers to look for koalas on their property, ‘Woodlands’ in the Kingstown area, west of Armidale.
“They visited the property in August looking for signs of koalas in a stringy bark thicket. They did find scats there that could have been six to 12 months old. Apparently koala scats can take a long time to break down,” Jim said.
Jim last sighted a koala on his property in spring 2015 and said, “Koalas have never been plentiful here but they have always been about, and I’ll be very interested in hearing about the wider results of the research project.”
According to Dave Carr, many local landholders have been happy to have koala surveys undertaken on their properties.
“People have also been keen to find out what they can do to help ensure their survival,” said Dave.
“Unfortunately it’s been a bit disappointing that we haven’t seen many live koalas on the properties we’ve surveyed so far. It may be a worrying sign that there are fewer koalas in our region than we had hoped.
He said the LLS would be grateful for landholders who have recently seen koalas on their country to could contact them about local koala activity.
The project organisers are particularly seeking more landholders to take part in the surveys around the Delungra, Ashford, Walcha, and Nowendoc areas.
If you have information about koala populations on the Northern Tablelands, if you’d like to find out more about the Cool Country Koala research project or upcoming free workshops to learn more about koalas, contact Carina Johnson at Local Land Services on 0477 395 631.
