Koalas will need our help more than ever this summer as hot, dry conditions force them to seek water. Here’s how to help keep them safe and what to do if you encounter a koala in distress.
A detailed map of the koala genome is vital to understanding their susceptibility to disease, their genetic diversity, and how they may respond to new environmental pressures.
The federal government has ordered a national koala audit, but the animals are notoriously difficult to detect. But accurately counting koalas is critical to saving them.
Koalas are notoriously difficult to detect. Traditional methods are costly and labour intensive. So we found a more efficient way to locate koalas in eastern NSW, using drones.
Researchers expected to find koalas killed by the fires. But they were heartbroken to find those that died afterwards from starvation, thirst or injury.
Koalas have long featured in tourism ads, including this new one from Tourism Australia. Amid our bushfire crisis, this digital ad has been ‘paused’.
Tourism Australia
The koala genome, published today, gives us new and valuable information to aid conservation of this marsupial. It identifies special genes that evolved to adapt the koala to its unique lifestyle.
Koala numbers are in decline through increased urbanisation, but they can find a safe passage if one’s provided.
Shutterstock/dirkr
Koala numbers in parts of Australia are in decline as they move from development of their land. But they can learn to take safer routes if they are built as part of the urban design.
The fate of this koala could depend on some clever computer modelling.
Shutterstock/Dudarev Mikhail
Research has shown that culling koalas could help stop the spread of deadly chlamydia. But how open will Australians be to killing one our favourite animals?
One of four koalas on loan to Singapore Zoo, where they were unveiled to the public on Wednesday May 20.
Qantas Airways
Four female koalas have just made their debut in front of an adoring public at Singapore Zoo – the latest in a long line of animals used for diplomatic purposes, going back to Winston the platypus.
Recent increases in land clearing threaten Queensland’s biodiversity.
Bill Laurance
Keeping cool during summer can be difficult, but new research published in Biology Letters shows that koalas cope with high temperatures in an unusual way – by hugging trees. Researchers used thermal imaging…
A koala at Trinity Beach in far north Queensland.
Flickr/Mshai (Michael Fontenot)
It was a breath of fresh air when, in 2012, the federal government listed koalas as being “vulnerable” in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory under national environment law…