CANBERRA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Australia's national science agency has called on citizens to record koala sightings to help build 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.

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 U.S. dollars) 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 citizen 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.

"We need as many different eyes as possible to help paint the most accurate picture of koala numbers and distribution across the country."

The latest NKMP report, which was released in March, estimated that there are between 224,000 and 524,000 koalas in Australia. It will deliver its next estimate in March 2025.

It estimated that there are between 95,000 and 238,000 koalas in Queensland, NSW and the ACT and between 129,000 and 286,000 individuals in South Australia and Victoria.

Koalas are not native to Western Australia, the island state of Tasmania or the Northern Territory. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)