Many Indigenous people want to help protect their traditional lands. That requires deciding which species and habitat matter most to them.
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Articles on Koalas
Displaying 1 - 20 of 57 articles
I’ve studied stress in marsupials. Here’s why banning koala cuddles is a good idea – backed by the scientific evidence on koala handling and stress.
Marsupial rescue, rehabilitation and release statistics from New South Wales and Kangaroo Island during Black Summer fires reveal poor survival rates, despite the courageous efforts of volunteers.
Many measures commonly thought to reduce the toll of animals injured and killed on our roads aren’t effective. But there is evidence to support other solutions.
A century ago, millions of koalas were killed for their fur. The backlash was fierce.
Conservation dogs perform vital roles across Australia. Some are guardians protecting wildlife from predators while others put their powerful sense of smell to use as sniffer dogs or detection dogs.
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.
For the proposed Great Koala National Park to actually help koalas, logging should stop and plantations should be added to the park.
Chlamydia is devastating for koalas, but the vaccine to prevent infection requires a booster shot. Recapturing the animals for their booster shot is costly and stresses them, but there’s a solution.
Offsets are meant to restore land elsewhere to make up for lost habitat. Developers can make payments to the state to cover the costs of this work, but a new study finds there’s usually a shortfall.
It can be hard and costly to collect data on the threats to species at specific locations. Wildlife emergency response services have long-running records for hundreds of species that suffered harm.
Shocking scenes of scorched koalas in the 2019-20 bushfires sparked research into cultural burns for wildlife. A two-year study on the world’s second-largest sand island suggests it’s the way to go.
Our research looked at data from the government’s annual baking competition. Upon close analysis, we find a dangerous lack of diversity and biases towards cute, cuddly mammals.
Koalas are often regarded as cute but dumb: slow, sleepy and incapable of change. But they have been known to approach humans for help. And maybe they have been set free by their remarkable diet.
Captive breeding of koalas could be done much more cheaply and avoid inbreeding issues if we embrace assisted reproduction.
It’s only fair to expect results from vast sums of public money spent on koala conservation. But continued land clearing badly undermines the investment.
Figures released this week suggest Australia’s koala populations have plummeted. So what’s the best way to protect these iconic animals from fires?
With their prominent foreheads, low eye position and rounded body, koalas can seem almost baby-like. But is that enough to save them?
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.
Top contributors
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Conservation Planner/Researcher, The University of Queensland
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Postdoctoral Researcher and Honorary Lecturer | School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle
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Researcher in Koala, Detection Dogs, Conservation Genetics and Ecology, University of the Sunshine Coast
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Senior Lecturer in Animal Science, The University of Queensland
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Professor of Ecology, The University of Queensland
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow | Deakin University, Deakin University
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Senior Lecturer in Wildlife and Conservation Biology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University
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Senior lecturer, University of the Sunshine Coast
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Postdoctoral research associate, University of Newcastle
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Deputy Director of Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University
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Research Affiliate, University of Newcastle
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Professor, The University of Queensland
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Associate Professor (adjunct) in Creative Writing, Flinders University
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Professor Emeritus in Terrestrial Ecology, University of Sydney
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Associate Professor in Ecology, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University
