The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is recognised as threatened across two thirds of its distribution and identified as particularly susceptible to climate change. The aim of this study was to assess the spatio-temporal variation in microclimate across koala home ranges and determine any tendency for koalas to exploit this variability. Temperature data loggers were set out in a grid pattern across the study site on St Bees Island, Queensland. Resident koalas were collared with GPS units recording location at night or during the day. Our results revealed that temperature variation across the landscape was greatest on the hottest days (~10 °C). During the day, koalas were found in areas of the landscape that recorded lower daytime temperatures, and during the night, they were found in areas that recorded the highest daytime temperatures. We postulate that koalas avoided the hottest areas of their range during summer days and were more likely to use cooler non-fodder trees but utilised them at night because these areas corresponded with the location of fodder trees. From our results, we suggest that the microclimate of non-fodder trees both (a) explains their selection by koalas during the day and (b) highlights their importance to koala persistence, in addition to the known fodder species.

A Central Queensland University (CQU) partnership with the Queensland Government National Park management agency has developed a koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) habitat managers’ toolkit for vegetation health assessment. Private and public landholders use the field-based toolkit to assess habitat suitability or monitor conservation outcomes for the koala—an iconic Australian arboreal herbivorous marsupial. The toolkit was upgraded recently with instructions to process European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-2 multispectral satellite-derived selected vegetation maps for areal vegetation health trend monitoring. A field campaign sought to validate the relatively coarse spatial resolution derived indices (photosynthetic health, leaf area index and leaf water content) to verify their suitability for the habitat management decision-support toolkit. Other user requirement-driven criteria for including remote sensing in the toolkit were imagery and associated processing software costs and ease of map production for habitat managers without cost-effective access to spatial science skills. Despite moderate-to-low field and image vegetation proxy correlations, discussing the results with stakeholders indicates that, at a landscape scale, the use of cost-free, suitable temporal resolution, 10-m spatial resolution imagery is satisfactory when aligned with the design outcomes of a habitat health toolkit.

Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) road kills occur frequently along the Peak Downs highway through the Clarke-Connors ranges. Highway upgrades allowed mitigation of koala-vehicle collision frequency while maintaining koala population connectivity. This project aimed to understand road kill distribution to inform protective infrastructure investment. Koala road kills were associated with: (1) streams and associated alluvia where the dominant vegetation included Eucalyptus tereticornis and E. platyphylla; (2) ridges supporting E. drepanophylla open forest/woodland abutting streams or alluvia; and (3) mid-lower slopes, dominated by E. drepanophylla that were dissected by minor streams fringed by E. tereticornis ± E. platyphylla. Road kills did not occur in E. drepanophylla open forest/woodland on ridge upper slopes, crests or on hills, although koalas occur in this landscape. Explaining why koala road kills are linked to landscape features requires investigation. It is likely that: (1) landscape elements associated with drainage lines, alluvia and E. tereticornis support a relatively high koala abundance, and hence the road kill risk is correspondingly higher; and (2) the engineered road architecture and road verge characteristics in these landscape elements are conducive to koalas crossing the road.

ABSTRACT Koalas moving across open ground risk dog attacks and collisions with vehicles when crossings roads. Historical records from a resident survey, two regional wildlife carers and a state government department wildlife shelter returns database for Victoria, Australia, were examined to determine the importance of certain admission types. Koala Vehicle Collisions (KVCs) and dog attacks were important contributors to the overall intake of injured koalas. However, KVCs were the most numerous recorded cause of koalas entering a wildlife shelter, and the most frequently assigned cause of death. There were relatively high rates of admission into care, and of death, for male koalas. Furthermore, almost twice as many individuals were admitted during the breeding season; sex ratio was not a differentiating characteristic of road-kills between breeding and non-breeding seasons, or by individual months. Comprehensive, accurate and detailed data gathering are essential for effective evaluation of the success of rehabilitation and release, as well as post release survival rates. This, together with population studies would determine whether admission rates reflect the sex ratio of local populations, and whether the high number of injured or killed females has an impact on their viability. Analyses of wildlife carer databases have great potential for decision making in koala conservation.

The koala population in northern Australia has become increasingly fragmented due to natural and man-made barriers and interventions. This situation has created a unique opportunity to study both endogenous and exogenous koala retrovirus (KoRV). To determine the impact that population isolation has had on KoRV diversity in Queensland, 272 koalas from six fragmented koala populations were profiled for their KoRV provirus across two natural biogeographical barriers (the St Lawrence Gap and the Brisbane Valley Barrier), one man-made geographical barrier (the city of Brisbane) and two translocation events (the single movement of koalas to an island and the repeated movement of koalas into a koala sanctuary). Analysis revealed that all koalas tested were KoRV-A positive, with 90 - 96% of the detected KoRV provirus from each koala representing a single, likely endogenous, KoRV-A strain. The next most abundant proviral sequence was a defective variant of the dominant KoRV-A strain, accounting for 3 - 10% of detected provirus. The remaining KoRV provirus represented expected exogenous strains of KoRV and included geographically localized patterns of KoRV-B, -C, -D, -F, -G, and -I. These results indicate that lineage diversification of exogenous KoRV is actively ongoing. In addition, comparison of KoRV provirus within known dam-sire-joey family groups from the koala sanctuary revealed that joeys consistently had KoRV proviral patterns more similar to their dams than their sires in KoRV-B, -C and -D provirus composition. Collectively, this study highlights both the consistency of endogenous KoRV and the diversity of exogenous KoRV across the fragmented koala populations in northern Australia.IMPORTANCE KoRV infection has become a permanent part of koalas in northern Australia. With KoRV presence and abundance linked to more severe chlamydial disease and neoplasia in these koalas, understanding how KoRV exists throughout an increasingly fragmented koala population is a key first step in designing conservation and management strategies. This survey of KoRV provirus in Queensland koalas indicates that endogenous KoRV provirus is ubiquitous and consistent throughout the state while exogenous KoRV provirus is diverse and distinct in fragmented koala populations. Understanding the prevalence and impact of both endogenous and exogenous KoRV will be needed to ensure a future for all koala populations.

The natural distribution of the critically endangered northern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii) is confined to Epping Forest National Park, Queensland; however, a small number of animals have been translocated to establish an insurance population at Richard Underwood Nature Refuge (RUNR), Queensland. Northern hairy-nosed wombat behaviour is poorly understood, mostly due to its cryptic behaviour. Thirty-two wildlife cameras set up at burrow mouths at RUNR were used to capture social and solitary behaviour. Over a six month period between December 2016 and May 2017, 0.3% (21 videos of 6607) of recordings captured social behaviour, suggesting that the northern hairy-nosed wombat actively avoids social interactions at the burrow mouth. Vocalisation was only observed during social interaction. The results were similar to data from Epping Forest National Park and studies on other wombat species. In this respect the translocated population appeared to behave in a manner typical of the wild population.

To evaluate the response of invertebrates to ‘clearing’ and grazing pressure impacts, a previously grazed but uncleared grassy woodland in central Queensland was manipulated to provide four grazing pressures (destocked, low, moderate and high) and two tree treatments (with trees, i.e. untreated, and ‘cleared’, i.e. trees and saplings poisoned with herbicides), with two replicates of each, making 16 plots in total. Monitoring was carried out in 1998, approximately four years post-establishment of the treatments. Two types of samples were taken: pitfall for ground-active fauna and suction for grass-associated fauna. Overall, 23 orders of invertebrates were sampled by pitfalls and 22 by suction. Significant effects of grazing on invertebrate assemblages were detected by both methods, but no effects were detected from ‘clearing’. There was a gradation in the invertebrate assemblages from low to high grazing pressure, the invertebrate assemblages in the paddocks with the highest grazing differing most from those in the destocked and low-grazing-pressure paddocks. Notwithstanding the lack of effect of ‘clearing’ at the assemblage level, ground-active invertebrates and some grass-associated invertebrates increased in abundance following ‘clearing’, possibly reflecting an increase in the quality of the resource base. However, ground-active invertebrates and grass-associated invertebrates showed contrasting responses to grazing pressure, the former increasing, possibly reflecting changes in trapability due to the more open vegetation structure at higher grazing pressures. The abundance of grass-associated invertebrates declined by 50–80% with increased grazing – although with complex changes in assemblage structure. Despite those declines, the basic trophic pyramid remained, and, along with that, the potential for recovery of invertebrate assemblages and associated ecosystem services with reduction in grazing intensity. With 80% of Queensland grazed, the reduction in invertebrate abundance has implications for the viability of insectivores, particularly mobile fauna such as birds, at a landscape scale. It is recommended that the utility of using suction samples as a basis for assessing ecosystem functional health be investigated and that grazing pressure be reduced to increase invertebrate assemblages of rangeland pastures and to improve sustainability.

Amphibian, reptile and mammal assemblages were evaluated as bioindicators of mining rehabilitation recovery at three northern Australian coal mines.Ten rehabilitated blocks of three ages, early (up to 7 years, five sites), mid (8 to 15 years, four sites) and late (24 years, one site), were compared with 11 local unmined reference sites.Because mining in this region mostly alters the topography from rolling plains to hills, reference forest sites included vegetation typical both of the pre-mining landscape and local hill-associated landscapes analogous to post-mining topography.Habitat attributes showed consistent patterns with age, reflecting successional changes from the initial dense plantings.Species richness of reptiles, and of lizard functional groups, increased with rehabilitation age.Reptile species assemblage also showed a trend towards the composition of reference forest sites.In contrast, metrics for the other faunal groups rapidly attained levels comparable to the reference sites, or fluctuated greatly.Lizard functional groups showed patterns of recovery consistent with microhabitat development.'Terrestrial' foraging lizards attained similar species richness to reference forest sites by mid-age rehabilitation whereas 'arboreal' and 'fossorial' lizard species were slower to colonise the rehabilitation.These findings complement studies from Australian bauxite and gold mining landscapes, suggesting that the utility of reptile assemblages as broadly applicable bioindicators should be considered.

Understanding the ability of koalas to respond to changes in their environment is critical for conservation of the species and their habitat. We monitored the behavioural response of koalas to declining food resources in manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis) woodland at Cape Otway, Victoria, Australia, from September 2011 to November 2013. Over this period, koala population density increased from 10.1 to 18.4 koalas.ha-1. As a result of the high browsing pressure of this population, manna gum canopy condition declined with 71.4% manna gum being completely or highly defoliated in September 2013. Despite declining food resources, radio collared koalas (N = 30) exhibited high fidelity to small ranges (0.4-1.2 ha). When trees became severely defoliated in September 2013, koalas moved relatively short distances from their former ranges (mean predicted change in range centroid = 144 m) and remained in areas of 0.9 to 1.0 ha. This was despite the high connectivity of most manna gum woodland, and close proximity of the study site (< 3 km) to the contiguous mixed forest of the Great Otway National Park. Limited movement had catastrophic consequences for koalas with 71% (15/21) of radio collared koalas dying from starvation or being euthanased due to their poor condition between September and November 2013.

Aim The koala is a widely distributed Australian marsupial with regional populations that are in rapid decline, are stable or have increased in size. This study examined whether it is possible to use expert elicitation to estimate abundance and trends of populations of this species. Diverse opinions exist about estimates of abundance and, consequently, the status of populations.Location Eastern and south-eastern AustraliaMethods Using a structured, four-step question format, a panel of 15 experts estimated population sizes of koalas and changes in those sizes for bioregions within four states. They provided their lowest plausible estimate, highest plausible estimate, best estimate and their degree of confidence that the true values were contained within these upper and lower estimates. We derived estimates of the mean population size of koalas and associated uncertainties for each bioregion and state.Results On the basis of estimates of mean population sizes for each bioregion and state, we estimated that the total number of koalas for Australia is 329,000 (range 144,000-605,000) with an estimated average decline of 24% over the past three generations and the next three generations. Estimated percentage of loss in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia was 53%, 26%, 14% and 3%, respectively.Main conclusions It was not necessary to achieve high levels of certainty or consensus among experts before making informed estimates. A quantitative, scientific method for deriving estimates of koala populations and trends was possible, in the absence of empirical data on abundances.

Daylight saving time (DST) could reduce collisions with wildlife by changing the timing of commuter traffic relative to the behaviour of nocturnal animals. To test this idea, we tracked wild koalas ( Phascolarctos cinereus ) in southeast Queensland, where koalas have declined by 80% in the last 20 years, and compared their movements with traffic patterns along roads where they are often killed. Using a simple model, we found that DST could decrease collisions with koalas by 8% on weekdays and 11% at weekends, simply by shifting the timing of traffic relative to darkness. Wildlife conservation and road safety should become part of the debate on DST.

The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is an iconic Australian species that is currently undergoing a number of threatening processes, including disease and habitat loss. A thorough understanding of population genetic structuring and genomic variability of this species is essential to effectively manage populations across the species range. Using a reduced representation genome sequencing method known as double digest restriction-associated sequencing, this study has provided the first genome-wide SNP marker panel in the koala. In this study, 33,019 loci were identified in the koala and a filtered panel of 3060 high-utility SNP markers, including 95 sex-linked markers, were used to provide key insights into population variability and genomic variation in 171 koalas from eight populations across their geographic range. Broad-scale genetic differentiation between geographically separated populations (including sub-species) was assessed and revealed significant differentiation between all populations (FST range = 0.01–0.28), with the largest divergence observed between the three geographically distant subgroups (QLD, NSW and VIC) along the east coast of Australia (average FST range = 0.17–0.23). Sub-group divergence appears to be a reflection of an isolation by distance effect and sampling strategy rather than true evidence of sub-speciation. This is further supported by low proportions of AMOVA variation between sub-species groups (11.19 %). Fine-scale analysis using genome-wide SNP loci and the NETVIEW pipeline revealed cryptic genetic sub-structuring within localised geographic regions, which corresponded to the hierarchical mating system of the species. High levels of genome-wide SNP heterozygosity were observed amongst all populations (He = 0.25–0.35), and when evaluating across the species to other vertebrate taxa were amongst the highest values observed. This illustrates that the species as a whole still retains high levels of diversity which is comparable to other outbred vertebrate taxa for genome-wide SNPs. Insights into the potential for adaptive variation in the koala were also gained using outlier analysis of genome-wide SNPs. A total of 10 putative outlier SNPs were identified indicating the high likelihood of local adaptations within populations and regions. This is the first use of genome-wide markers to assess population differentiation at a broad-scale in the koala and the first time that sex-linked SNPs have been identified in this species. The application of this novel genomic resource to populations across the species range will provide in-depth information allowing informed conservation priorities and management plans for in situ koalas across Australia and ex situ around the world.

Rural producers, natural resource managers and conservation managers face a constantly changing set of climatic and human influences. Traditional land production systems and environmental management are under pressure. New approaches to production and natural resource management are required in the face of government financial resource and capacity constraints, as well as the intensifying environmental challenges.

The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), one of the world's most iconic faunal species, was recently listed under Australian government legislation as vulnerable in the northern states of Queensland and New South Wales and in the Australian Capital Territory, but not in the southern states of Victoria and South Australia. This review synthesises empirical evidence of regional koala population trends, their conservation outlook, and associated policy challenges. Population declines are common in the northern half of the koala's range, where habitat loss, hotter droughts, disease, dog attacks and vehicle collisions are the major threats. In contrast, some southern populations are locally overabundant and are now subject to managed declines. The koala presents the problem of managing a wide-ranging species that now primarily occurs in human-modified landscapes, some of which are rapidly urbanising or subject to large-scale agricultural and mining developments. Climate change is a major threat to both northern and southern populations. The implementation of policy to conserve remaining koala habitat and restore degraded habitat is critical to the success of koala conservation strategies, but habitat conservation alone will not resolve the issues of koala conservation. There needs to be concerted effort to reduce the incidence of dog attack and road-related mortality, disease prevalence and severity, and take into account new threats of climate change and mining. Many of the complex conservation and policy challenges identified here have broader significance for other species whose population trends, and the nature of the threatening processes, vary from region to region, and through time.

Despite being a charismatic and well-known species, the social system of the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus--the only extant member of the family Phascolarctidae) is poorly known and much of the koala's sociality and mating behaviors remain un-quantified. We evaluated these using proximity logging-GPS enabled tracking collars on wild koalas and discuss their implications for the mating system of this species. The frequency and duration of male-female encounters increased during the breeding season, with male-male encounters quite uncommon, suggesting little direct mating competition. By comparison, female-female interactions were very common across both seasons. Body mass of males was not correlated with their interactions with females during the breeding season, although male size is associated with a variety of acoustic parameters indicating individuality. We hypothesise that vocal advertising reduces the likelihood of male-male encounters in the breeding season while increasing the rate of male-female encounters. We suggest that male mating-season bellows function to reduce physical confrontations with other males allowing them to space themselves apart, while, at the same time, attracting females. We conclude that indirect male-male competition, female mate choice, and possibly female competition, mediate sexual selection in koalas.

Descriptions of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) habitat and diet from 11 sites across Queensland are presented. Koala activity was recorded from 49 regional ecosystems across nine land zones and five bioregions. Thirty-four tree species were identified from an examination of leaf cuticle fragments in faecal pellets. Although the species were from three families and seven genera, 44% of browse species (15) belonged to the myrtaceous subgenus Symphomyrtus. Eleven of these contributed most of the koala diet across all sites. However, most species were present in minor or trace dietary elements. There was also a large number of unidentified species or dietary elements, all of which were usually present in trace amounts. The importance of these minor and trace components is not known. Diet at some sites was founded on a single eucalypt species. Here the likelihood of those sites’ browse resources being lost or degraded by stochastic events, as climate variability increases, raises questions about the persistence of the resident koala populations.

Koala research in regional Queensland is characterised by limited resources and considerable logistical difficulties. Despite a plethora of opportunities for research and what we think is the key requirement to study populations that are not under constant pressure from urbanisation, only a limited number of studies of basic biology in this area are supported through contemporary sources. Regional research is largely funded through independent resources such as companies, overseas partners and community groups. A large part of the support for regional research is through in-kind support from government agencies and local stakeholders. In particular Marine Parks Mackay have been the key supporter of the research into the ecology of koalas on the islands off Mackay. The rationale for researching central Queensland’s koalas is that these populations hold important information on koala conservation issues – such as the key limiting factors on distribution, where evolutionary potential lies, and even immune responses to disease. We can have long term field research ‘laboratories’ that (hopefully) won’t be turned into a development site. We can pick from a whole suite of environments and have access to natural open systems and non-urban landscapes...

In principle, conservation planning relies on long-term data; in reality, conservation decisions are apt to be based upon limited data and short-range goals. For the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), frequently reliance is made on the assumption that indirect signs can be used to indicate behavioural preferences, such as diet choice. We examined the relationship between the use of trees by koalas and the presence of scats beneath those trees. Tree use was associated with scat presence on 49% of occasions when koalas were radio-tracked in both central Queensland (n = 10 koalas) and south-east Queensland (n = 5 koalas), increasing to 77% of occasions when trees were rechecked the following day. Koala densities were correlated with scat abundance at sites with koala density between ~0.2 and 0.6 koalas per hectare. Our results confirm that scat searches are imprecise indicators of tree use by koalas, but demonstrate that these searches can be used, with caveats, to estimate koala population densities. We discuss how errors in estimating or applying predictive model parameters can bias estimates of occupancy and show how a failure to validate adequately the assumptions used in modelling and mapping can undermine the power of the products to direct rational conservation and management efforts.