Koala monitoring programs

Robust monitoring programs are important for koala management as they help to:

• understand what is driving population changes
• provide evidence to support policy, program design, and on-ground management activities.

Our monitoring programs capture high quality data to establish baseline information on koalas, detect and evaluate trends in populations, and develop models to predict the resilience of our koala populations.

Statewide monitoring

Three statewide koala monitoring programs are addressing knowledge gaps to support koala conservation and management across New South Wales:

1. The koala baseline survey measures koala distribution, occupancy and relative abundance at over 1,000 sites.
2. The koala priority population monitoring program uses acoustic-based monitoring to measure population trends of 20 priority koala populations.
3. The koala sentinel program assesses koalas for disease, genetic diversity, and ecology at the individual and population levels at 6 key locations.

Each program collaborates with partners to develop project scopes, deliver programs in the field, analyse samples and collect data, and builds capacity to support program delivery.

Our partners include:

• NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service
• Taronga Conservation Society Australia
• Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development
• CSIRO
• non-government organisations
• universities.

The results of the baseline survey will be shared with the National Koala Monitoring Program to inform the Australian Government's understanding of the distribution and abundance of koala populations in Australia.

The 3 programs use gold-standard koala survey methods, such as heat-detecting drones and acoustic recorders.

The NSW Koala Strategy, which began in 2021, included work to identify these best-practice methods to locate and monitor koalas.

We are creating consistent, reliable and reusable data sets on koala occupancy and abundance in New South Wales.