Koalas are a big deal, and for good reason. The nation’s cuddliest creatures have long held icon status, but in recent years, it’s increasingly come to light how fragile their existence is becoming, with koalas currently predicted to go extinct by 2050. It is this horrible statistic that has spurred on committed attempts to try and save the koalas we have left – and now, for all koala fans in NSW, we’ve got some good news.
During the last month, the Minns government has been conducting a massive survey of existing koala populations across NSW, with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service surveying 1000 sites throughout NSW. Now, they’ve just found a staggering 42 new koalas in Coolah Tops, a national park that's about four hours north-west of Sydney. This fresh discovery is amazing and unexpected, with the previous government only recording five koala sightings in the region over the last 70 years. That’s a pretty big jump.
Using sniffer dogs and thermal drones, this big koala survey has been trying to accurately map existing koala communities in NSW in the aftermath of the catastrophic bushfires and floods that have hit the state in the last few years, with it being imperative that we get all the stats right if we want to try to save koalas for good. To put it simply – if we know how many koalas we’ve got, we know how many we should be working to save, with a population baseline the first step in tracking recovery.
The Coolah Tops koalas are currently being tested for chlamydia, with researchers hoping to potentially use the Coolah location as a safe spot for the relocation of other koalas whose habitats have been destroyed.
With the Minns government promising to hold a koala summit this year, and promising to create a Great Koala National Park, the people of NSW, Australia and, for that matter, the world, can feel hopeful.