Collaborative partnerships for monitoring koalas – Australia’s iconic species

[Music plays as image appears of an aerial view panning across a tree canopy beside a body of water]

[Images move through to show a male and female looking up a tree, a male taking a photo, a young

male with an acoustic recorder, a tagged koala, and then the images morph into the CSIRO logo]

[Image changes to show Dr Andrew Hoskins talking to the camera, and text appears: Dr Andrew

Hoskins, CSIRO Quantitative Biologist]

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.

[Images move through to show an aerial view looking down on a scrubby landscape, and the camera

pans over the area in a clockwise direction, and text appears: Point Halloran Conservation Area,

Victoria Point, QLD]

Today we're here in the Redlands Coast region, and we're going to show you some of the many ways that we look for koalas under the National Koala Monitoring Program.

[Image changes to show a close view of Andrew talking to the camera, and then image changes to show a detection dog in a harness working]

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

[Images move through to show a female with a young male and female talking and using an acoustic recorder, a koala high in a tree, and then a group of people looking up into the tree canopy]

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.

[Images move through to show Andrew talking to the camera, a young female with a phone beside a female pointing up, a young male using a phone QR code, and then Andrew talking to the camera]

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.

[Images move though to show a male taking a photo of a koala, Dr Romane Cristescu talking to the

camera with two dogs, and Romane’s hand patting one of the dogs, and then text appears: Dr

Romane Cristescu, University of Sunshine Coast, Veterinarian and Conservation Ecologist]

Dr Romane Cristescu:  Hi, my name is Dr Romane Cristescu and this is Summer here, and we are from Detection Dog for Conservation at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

[Images move through to show Romane and a colleague with three dogs, Romane talking to the

camera next to two dogs, and a detection dog in a harness working]

So basically what they do is they help us find koala scats and through their scats we know that koala live in the habitat.

[Image changes to show a view of the tree canopy, and then the image changes to show Romane

working with a dog on lead]

And so we are really detecting and mapping koala habitat.

[Images move through to show a caged koala, Romane talking to the camera with two dogs, a detecting dog working, and then Romane looking up a tree at a koala high in the tree]

And then often we also want to know health, koalas’ health. And so for that we deploy what we call our genetic detection dog. And that dog takes us to the very fresh scat. We collect the scat and we bring them back to the lab.

[Music plays and images move though to show Romane’s hand directing a detection dog, the dog

sniffing around before laying down, and then Romane’s hand picking up a koala scat to show the

camera]

Search. Stay with me. Stay with me. Yes. Good boy.

[Images move though to show Romane crouching holding a koala scat while talking to the camera,

Romane adjusting dog’s lead, and a close view of her hand holding koala scat]

So, basically, um, we were searching the landscape for koala scats, and Austin got very excited and suddenly dropped. And so that's his indication that he's got something. So what I do then, I ask him to show me because it's still really hard to find a scats in that, you know, very complex litter. And so he's pointed the scats with his nose and here it is.

[Image changes to show a close view of Romane talking to the camera with two dogs]

So with the National Koala Monitoring program, we've been doing actually a lot of different method testing. So we're really keen to always know the strengths and limitations of the different innovation that we do for koala conservation.

[Images move though to show Romane next to a detection dog, Romane with a young female using an acoustic recorder, and then Romane’s moving away from camera to show a koala in a tree]

So from detection, using dog or acoustic recorder, to density to health measure.

[Image changes to show a close view of Romane talking to the camera with two dogs]

All the methods have pros and cons and they have strengths and limitations.

[Image changes to show a medium view of a male standing with three detection dogs on a lead beside a ute, and then a close view of two detection dogs on a lead moving around]

And only by knowing that really well, we'll be able to select the best method and really get accurate data on koalas.

[Images move though to show various views of Romane talking to the camera, a tagged koala on a tree, various views the koala climbing down a tree to the ground, and then the koala on the ground]

So we just have one of our koala coming down the tree. And we saw him before and there was quite a lot of bird's activity and we thought potentially he was being harassed by the birds. And so he's just come down you can see that he's got a collar and an ear tag.

[Image changes to show Romane talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show the

koala moving away from the camera across the ground]

So the collar is so that we know its location through the landscape, especially here, there’s a lot of houses, a lot of roads. We really want to know how we can manage those safely.

[Images move though to show Romane talking and showing a tagging device to the camera, a koala climbing a tree, and then a koala sitting up in a tree]

So those little Bluetooth koala ear tags are really essential link between citizen scientists and koala conservation. Basically, thanks to that little tag people can report where koala are but also who is where.

[Images move thought to show various views of koalas up in tree canopies, a koala climbing a tree trunk]

So linking each individual koala to their home range and which are the koala in their home range and sharing that life with them.

[Image changes to show Romane holding up a tagging device and talking to the camera]

It's very critical because all that data enables government, for instance, to make decisions on where to conserve koala habitat. And it also is a way to train every one of us to become protector or guardians of our koala because we can learn how to recognise when a koala is sick and report it through the app.

[Image changes to show Romane and Andrew releasing a caged koala and then watching as it climbs the tree trunk]

And then we can get in touch through the app with local wildlife carer and those people are amazing citizens who come rescue koala and bring them to hospital so they can get treated and release them back into the wild.

[Image changes to show a group of people walking along in the bush using an acoustic recorder and

then the image changes to show Dr Samantha Munroe talking to the camera, and text appears: Dr

Samantha Munroe, CSIRO Spatial Ecologist]

Dr Samantha Munroe:  The National Koala Monitoring Program has created an app called Koala Spotter, which lets people record koala sightings no matter where they are.

[Image changes to show Andrew and Samantha walking with the young people holding Smartphones,

Samantha talking to the camera, and then Andrew showing the young people a Smartphone]

So if you're out walking in town or on a bushwalk or at the park and you spot a koala, you can take a picture, record your location and send that data to us.

[Images move through to show Samantha talking to the camera, a “Have you seen Biripi?” sign in the

park, a female using the sign’s QR code, and a group of people looking up into the tree canopy]

The data you collect using the app gets sent to our National Koala Sightings database, and from there we use that information to create maps of where they live, how many koalas there are and also whether or not they're healthy.

[Images move through to show Samantha talking to the camera, Andrew and Samantha with the

young people using Smartphones, and then Samantha talking to the camera]

We've deliberately designed this app so that anybody, no matter their age, can use this and get out there and have some fun.

[Image changes to show Samantha and a young female walking together using a Smartphone]

And believe it or not, most of the data that we've gotten through this app so far has come from family and kids who are just out together on an adventure.

[Images move through to show Andrew talking to the camera with Romane listening, Andrew and

Samantha and two young people, walking, and Andrew talking to the camera with Romane listening]

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.

[Music plays and the image changes to show a white screen with the CSIRO logo, and text appears:

[CSIRO, Australia’s National Science Agency]