Koala count: a koala census may settle controversy over threatened or thriving

The controversy regarding the koala’s status as threatened or thriving continues as the Australian government’s national Threatened Species Scientific Committee announced its ruling on April 30.

The federal environment minister, on advice from the Threatened Species Scientific Committee, announced that Australia’s most “at risk” koala populations in Queensland, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT-Canberra) will be listed as vulnerable under national environment protection laws (Canberra Times, May 1, 2012). However, koala populations in Victoria and South Australia will be excluded from the listing because they are deemed to be thriving—either stable or increasing in numbers.

The Premier of Queensland, Campbell Newman, has opposed the listing because the implications mean restrictions to housing developments and mining, thus resulting in job losses in the construction industry.

Conservation groups, such as Humane Society International, Friends of the Earth, and the Australian Koala Foundation, are not happy with the listing either. They want a blanket cover for all koala populations across the all regions in order to protect the iconic and much-loved symbol of Australia. Victorian and South Australian koala populations should also be listed as vulnerable because they are genetically different to other populations, they maintain. Because these koala populations occur in the regions due to tanslocations (sourced from other populations in other regions), they are said to have low genetic diversity. Conservation groups want protection for koala habitats, research related to koala diseases, and action to deal with threats to koala populations (such as dog attacks, land degradation, and road accidents).

The controversial issue is related to numbers. All koala statistics are non-existent in some regions, and out-dated or estimated in other regions. As mentioned in my blog “Koala numbers uncertain: high in some areas of Australia, a threatened species in other areas” (April 26, 2012), a 1993 survey of koala populations in Gunnedah Shire (northwest of Sydney, in New South Wales) estimated 15,000 koalas and that “recent numbers” were now between 500 and 2,000. In the Shire, these numbers are not currently certain. The Australian Koala Foundation, through its Koala Habitat Atlas, believes that the national wild koala population could be less than 80,000 and dwindling due to habitat loss. However, many scientists in Australia do not support AKF’s estimates regarding the numbers of koalas in the wild, nor their reasons for the decline in some areas. The Australian government currently estimates the koala population in the “hundreds of thousands” countrywide and lists it as a priority species for conservation status assessment.

Countries often take a count of threatened or endangered species of animals. For example, in October 2009, the Ministry of the Environment and Tourism in Mongolia undertook a census (count) of wild mountain sheep, wild goats, black tailed gazelle, antelope, and wild horses. The last count of reindeer was at the end of the 1980s conducted by the National University of Mongolia and the University of Irkutsk in Russia. Students counted 400 reindeer at the time. Apparently, no-one has seen them in the wild since.

A national koala census may be required to more accurately determine regional koala populations, their decline or otherwise, and habitat threats or otherwise. The Threatened Species Scientific Committee continually monitors the populations of native species, defines precise boundaries between zones where koala numbers are stable or in decline, and evaluates their classification and listing accordingly. However, current koala numbers remain unknown and uncertain.