Australia's national science agency has called on citizens to record koala sightings to help calculate the most accurate national population count of the iconic marsupial.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) on Thursday encouraged Australians across the country to actively take part in koala conservation by recording sightings on the Koala Spotter smartphone app.
Koalas in the Australian Reptile Park in Somersby, New South Wales, Australia, June 21, 2024. /CFP
The koala was listed as endangered by the federal government in the east coast states of New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland as well as the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in 2022 due to the impacts of habitat loss from land clearing and mining, disease and the growing frequency of droughts and bushfires.
In September 2022, the government committed 10 million Australian dollars ($6.5 million) in funding over four years for the National Koala Monitoring Program (NKMP), a collaborative program led by the CSIRO aiming to build an accurate estimate of national koala numbers to aid recovery and management efforts.
Andrew Hoskins, a CSIRO Quantitative Biologist, said on Thursday that a range of technologies and methods are needed to count koalas, calling for citizens and scientists to help deliver the most precise population estimate to date.
"To count the species, scientists have been using thermal drones to spot koalas from above, deploying acoustic recorders in the field and detection dogs, conducting scat analysis, while also carrying out systematic visual surveys and data integration from previous and historic sources," he said in a media release.