KOALA NEWS & SCIENCE
An informative monthly newsletter about successes & important announcements in koala conservation, and the latest scientific publications about koalas.
August 2024
Subscribe here: https://mailchi.mp/808fc4af1ee0/koala-news-science
Major drivers of koala habitat clearing
An ABC article released 4 September showed that fossil fuel mining, particularly for coal, is the largest reason for EPBC-approved clearing of koala habitat in Queensland & NSW, causing 45% of the koala habitat lost from 2012 to 2024. https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-09-04/renewable-vs-fossil-fuel-land-clearing-of-koala-habitat/103765336
Yet those figures were only a tiny part of the story.
This article in The Conversation, September 2019 shows that those figures are <10% of the clearing that actually occurred. Over 90% of clearing was never even referred to EPBC.
https://theconversation.com/environment-laws-have-failed-to-tackle-the-extinction-emergency-heres-the-proof-122936
Ward et al 2019: https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.117
It gets worse, though. These horrific deforestation figures are dwarfed by the reality.
This new paper by Michelle Ward et al (August 2024) shows that Government logging of native forests is resulting in far, far greater deforestation than private/corporate land clearing.
https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.13185
One of the authors, Dr Phil Zylstra, matched up the figures and timelines* in the paper and ABC article, converted them to annual figures, and created this comparison. Shared with permission.
*note the ABC article used the time period 2012 to 2024, the Ward paper used 2000 to 2022. Note also the ABC figures were national, Ward 2024 was NSW only.
Time is short and solutions are urgently needed. Thankyou to the authors for bringing this huge issue out into the light, and particular thanks to Dr Romane Cristecu, Dr Bill Ellis and Dr Phil Zylstra for alerting me to this. Now we have another great reason to stop all native forest logging – Janine
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Koalas not Coal new report 21 August
A new report on Australian Policy Online assesses coal mine proposals that plan to clear koala habitat, and the climate pollution they entail.
https://apo.org.au/node/328025
Basketball players plant trees for Koalas VIC
Melbourne United Basketball planted trees for koalas at Wurdi Youang indigenous protected area, Little River with Koala Clancy Foundation.
https://youtu.be/0mSYMqKteqQ?si=R-K84ZYeO-QkyrqK
Bangalow Koalas urge council to reject sale of koala habitat to developers NSW 30 August
Byron Council are considering selling a road reserve that contains important koala habitat to facilitate a development. Bangalow Koalas have made a submission against the proposal.
https://www.echo.net.au/2024/08/bangalow-koalas-protest-sale-of-council-land/
Community forum about koalas in Moreton Bay on 19 September QLD
The forum will be held at Deception Bay. Researchers from University of Sunshine Coast and citizen scientists will present their most recent findings.
https://www.moretondaily.com.au/news/forum-to-focus-on-saving-koalas
Major feature Australian Geographic on koalas 30 August
Australian Geographic features a koala on the cover of the July/August issue, with stories about the Great Koala NP covered.
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2024/08/notes-from-the-field-koala-loving-community/
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2024/07/clear-cutting-koala-country/
Petition for stronger nature laws
Environment groups in every state are calling for the federal government to fix the broken EPBC. Add your signature.
SA: https://www.conservationsa.org.au/strengthen_our_nature_laws
VIC: https://environmentvictoria.org.au/action/speak-up-for-strong-nature-laws/
NSW: https://www.nature.org.au/national_nature_laws
QLD: https://www.queenslandconservation.org.au/new_federal_nature_laws
Landowner Information Workshop in the Eurobodalla NSW on 7 September
Eurobodalla Koala Project are hosting a community information workshop to inform and encourage landowners about planting koala trees on their properties.
https://aboutregional.com.au/volunteers-working-with-farmers-to-help-return-endangered-koalas-back-to-the-eurobodalla/457291/
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Latest Koala Science
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Phillips, S., Hanger, J., Grosmaire, J., Mehdi, A., Jelocnik, M., Wong, J. and Timms, P., 2024. Immunisation of koalas against Chlamydia pecorum results in significant protection against chlamydial disease and mortality. npj Vaccines, 9(1), p.139. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-024-00938-5
In 2022, the Australian Government listed the koala as endangered in several states due to habitat destruction, traffic strikes, dog attacks, and Chlamydia pecorum disease. This study evaluates a 10-year assessment of a Major Outer Membrane Protein-based vaccine’s effectiveness against chlamydial disease in wild koalas from Southeast Queensland. Over a decade, 680 koalas were tracked, with five vaccine trials involving 165 koalas. While prior studies only offered up to two years of data, this study’s extended period allowed a thorough evaluation of vaccine efficacy. Results showed that vaccinated koalas had significantly lower disease incidence, with a 64% reduction in chlamydial mortality. This vaccine demonstrated positive impacts on both male and female koalas, highlighting its crucial role in conserving the Australian koala population and mitigating the threats they face.
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Sandino, A.O., Jackson, N., Powell, D., Terraube, J., Santamaria, F., Valenza, L., Booth, R. and Frere, C., Towards a Healthier Future: Koala Health Diagnostics Through Scat Microbiome.
https://www.authorea.com/doi/full/10.22541/au.172426877.75352722
Conservation biology requires accurate data on how human-induced threats affect wildlife fitness and survival. Gut microbiota play a critical role in health by influencing physiology, nutrition, immunology, and behaviour. Advances in non-invasive sampling, particularly scat microbiome analysis, offer scalable conservation solutions. This study establishes a benchmark using basic machine learning algorithms (SVM, Ranger, glmnet, and xgboost) to predict health outcomes in koalas from non-invasive scat microbiome data. Scat samples from 125 koalas were analysed using 16S PacBio HiFi sequencing. By incorporating a phylogenetic approach and integrating additional metrics such as sex, age, and stress metabolites, which can potentially be acquired non-invasively, we achieved high accuracy in predicting key health outcomes, including body condition score (BCS), disease status, survival outcome, and weight. The algorithms achieved a minimum accuracy of 68% and a maximum accuracy of 84%. By establishing this benchmark, we set the stage for future research to utilize wildlife hospital infrastructure for larger sample collection and advanced machine learning, with the ultimate goal of developing a predictive health diagnostics tool for wildlife.
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Ekkel, R., 2024. Real Men Don’t Kill Koalas: Gender and Conservationism in the Queensland Koala Open Season of 1927. Australian Historical Studies, pp.1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2024.2370786
In July 1927, the Queensland state government declared an open season on koalas, in which more than 600,000 koalas were shot, poisoned, or trapped. In the broad-based and emotional backlash which ensued, gender ideologies featured significantly. Concepts of authentically Australian forms of masculinity and femininity were mobilised in attempts to end the destruction; koala-killing was framed as a debasement of an idealised ‘bushman’ identity and koala fur wearing as a betrayal of an idealised category of inherently caring womanhood. The interests of parents and children came to the fore in a campaign concerned with preserving the popular ‘native bear’ for the enjoyment of future generations. This article draws out how gendered understandings of koalas and koala-killing contributed to the animals’ reclassification from an economic resource to an anthropomorphised friend and symbol, whose slaughter was conceived by many as unmanly and un-Australian.
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Ward, M., Ashman, K., Lindenmayer, D.B., Legge, S., Kindler, G., Cadman, T., Fletcher, R., Whiterod, N., Lintermans, M., Zylstra, P. and Stewart, R., 2024. Shifting baselines clarify the impact of contemporary logging on forest‐dependent threatened species. Conservation Science and Practice, p.e13185.
https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.13185
Despite the importance of protecting forests and woodlands to achieve global climate and biodiversity goals, logging impacts persist worldwide. Forestry advocates often downplay these impacts but rarely consider the cumulative threat deforestation and degradation has had, and continues to have, on biodiversity. Using New South Wales (Australia) as a case study, we quantify the extent of deforestation and degradation from 1788 (pre-European colonization) to 2021. We used historical loss as a baseline to evaluate recent logging (2000–2022) and the condition of the remaining native forest and woodland. Condition was quantified by measuring the similarity of a current ecosystem to a historical reference state with high ecological integrity. Using these data, we measured the impacts on 269 threatened terrestrial species. We show that possibly over half (29 million ha) of pre-1788 native forest and woodland vegetation in NSW has been lost. Of the remaining 25 million ha, 9 million ha is estimated to be degraded. We found recent logging potentially impacted 150 species that had already been affected by this historical deforestation and degradation, but the impacts varied across species. Forty-three species that were identified as impacted by historical deforestation and degradation and continue to be impacted by logging, now have ≤50% of their pre-1788 extent remaining that is intact and nine species now have ≤30%. Our research contextualizes the impact of current logging against historical deforestation and highlights deficiencies in environmental assessments that ignore historical baselines. Future land management must consider both the extent and condition of remaining habitat based on pre-1788 extents.
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Koala Science In Brief
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Harding, E.F., Mercer, L.K., Yan, G.J., Waters, P.D. and White, P.A., 2024. Invasion and amplification of endogenous retroviruses in Dasyuridae marsupial genomes. Molecular Biology and Evolution, p.msae160.
https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msae160
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Hayward, J.A., Tian, S. and Tachedjian, G., 2024. GALV-KoRV-related retroviruses in diverse Australian and African rodent species. Virus Evolution, 10(1), p.veae061.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ve/veae061
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Feature Paper:
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Ward, M.S., Simmonds, J.S., Reside, A.E., Watson, J.E., Rhodes, J.R., Possingham, H.P., Trezise, J., Fletcher, R., File, L. and Taylor, M., 2019. Lots of loss with little scrutiny: The attrition of habitat critical for threatened species in Australia. Conservation Science and Practice, 1(11), p.e117.
https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.117
Australia has one of the worst extinction rates of any nation, yet there has been little assessment of the effect of its flagship environmental legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), to prevent species extinction. By coupling remotely sensed forest and woodland data with the distributions of 1,638 terrestrial threatened species, terrestrial migratory species, and threatened ecological communities, we quantified the loss of potential habitat and communities since the EPBC Act came into force in 2000. We found that over 7.7 million ha of potential habitat and communities were cleared in the period 2000–2017. Of this clearing, over 93% was not referred to the Federal Government for assessment, meaning the loss was not scrutinized under the EPBC Act. While 1,390 (84%) species suffered loss, Mount Cooper striped skink, Keighery’s macarthuria, and Southern black-throated finch lost 25, 23, and 10% of potential habitat, respectively. Iconic Australian species, such as koala, also lost ~1 million ha (2.3%) of potential habitat. Our analysis showed that the EPBC Act is ineffective at protecting potential habitat for terrestrial threatened species, terrestrial migratory species, or threatened ecological communities. We recommend that when scientifically determinable, critical habitat is demarcated for listed species and communities, which provides absolute protection that is enforced, monitored, and investigated by the regulator. Without a fundamental change in how environmental law is enforced, Australia faces an increasing extinction rate.
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Previous Koala News & Science here: https://www.wildkoaladay.com.au/koala-news-science/koala-news-science-july-2024/
Written by Janine Duffy President, Koala Clancy Foundation.
with support from Cheryl Egan, Organiser, Wild Koala Day.
Please send your positive, important news & publications to president@koalaclancyfoundation.org.au before 29th of each month for possible inclusion.