2024/25 thermal drone work summary koala

Here are the results and observations from the 2024/25 drone koala surveys.

-Wildseek covered 9 sites in rural Hills and Hornsby, mostly Glenorie and Maroota areas

-About 80ha was covered on average per site (some less)

-6 out of 9 sites detected koalas

-From the 6 sites there was a total of 15 koala detections

-ALL koala detections were near the top of the ridge, or at least in the top quarter

-NO koalas were detected in the valleys

-We recorded tree species present at each site where koalas were detected, an observation only, (not enough to make any scientific conclusions) but interesting to consider. The list is in order of which was seen most regularly. Grey gum was at all sites, even if sparse in some

-Maroota Forest had the majority of koala detections

-ALL sites were on private land. The Hills in particular has very little conserved bushland.

-All sites had anecdotal community reports in the years prior to drone work (but rare) and were chosen from our koala map, showing that it is important to listen to community because they are usually right!

What do these results mean?

Well it means that yes, we do have what seems to be a low density population in our region, likely a breeding population because of the presence of females and the number of sightings. The drone work was consistent with and supported out existing koala map based on community reports.

We learned more about population density and distribution.

The information about terrain type and locations and tree types where koalas were detected is observational only, it does not give us anything scientifically conclusive as there are just too many variables and our studies are limited. The observations do make sense with pre-existing data on koalas tree preferences and soil type preferences in most of the observations. Most of the trees are koala feed trees, and some that koalas have been observed feeding from in our area. Regarding the drones detecting koalas on the ridges and not in the valleys - this does not mean koalas are not in the valleys, it only means they weren't detected there on those particular nights. All the drone work was done on winter nights, so it could even be that they were up there when it was cooler. We don't know. At one site there were tasty mountain blue gum and swamp mahogany in the valley so they surely must be down there some of the time!