{"id":349514,"date":"2025-11-02T04:00:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T04:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/349514\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T04:00:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T04:00:20","slug":"drones-spot-hidden-koala-population-in-nsw-snowy-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/349514\/","title":{"rendered":"Drones spot hidden koala population in NSW Snowy Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

A hidden group of koalas has been discovered, with the use of thermal drones, for the first time in a remote area of the New South Wales Snowy Mountains.<\/p>\n

Koalas are known to exist in parts of the high country<\/a>, including at Numeralla, Dangelong, Kybeyan and Peak View.<\/p>\n

But it appears their numbers are more extensive than previously thought, after eight koalas were sighted at Avonside, east of Jindabyne.<\/p>\n

“It’s become more than just a couple of animals sighted in one location,” Local Land Services officer Kirrily Gould said.<\/p>\n

“To have another population of koalas that’s well separated from that area is significant.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Drone sightings<\/p>\n

Thermal drones found two koalas in Avonside in July 2024, before eight more were detected in July 2025 with the same technology.<\/p>\n

Vision was recorded across five 56-hectare grids in the Avonside region as part of the most recent survey.<\/p>\n

Koalas were also spotted in more commonly known areas such as the Coornartha Nature Reserve.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Drones also found koalas in the Coornartha Nature Reserve near Numeralla, a known area for the species. (Supplied: Local Land Services)<\/p>\n

Prior to this, there were historical records of koala scat in the Avonside area and some anecdotal reports from landholders.<\/p>\n

Audio monitoring surveys had also taken place in the area, detecting male koala bellows.<\/p>\n

A bushfire swept through the region in 2003, raising doubts about whether any koalas remained.<\/p>\n

“Since then there have been very few koala sightings, and I think there was a belief that the population had largely been lost,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms Gould said.<\/p>\n

“Where we found these new clusters of koala occupancy, landholders didn’t know they had koalas on their property.”<\/p>\n

Sally Miller, senior project officer with the NSW government’s koala strategy, said the detection of eight koalas was “incredibly exciting”.<\/p>\n

“It’s showing a really slow but positive increase in recovery following those fires,” Dr Miller said.<\/p>\n

“This is the first survey that has picked up anywhere near this number.<\/p>\n

“To have the video footage from the thermal drones is the best evidence that we’ve had yet of a low-density, surviving, population in that Avonside neighbourhood.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Koala karaoke<\/p>\n

Following the thermal drone sightings, Landcare and Snowy Mountains Wildlife Rescue volunteers went into the area on foot to collect koala scat.<\/p>\n

It will be tested to check if the marsupials are infected with chlamydia.<\/p>\n

The disease is a leading threat<\/a> that can cause infertility and overall population decline.<\/p>\n

\"Koala<\/p>\n

Major threats to koalas include habitat degradation, bushfires and chlamydia. (Supplied: Local Land Services)<\/p>\n

“If this population is disease-free, it makes it a vitally important part of the koala puzzle on the Southern Tablelands because of their isolated nature,” Ms Gould said.<\/p>\n

“It means that they won’t pick up disease from other populations or they won’t spread the disease.<\/p>\n

“It will be a nice little satellite population that will safeguard koalas’ future.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The habitat of Avonside is steep and isolated with few established tracks.<\/p>\n

This is ideal for koalas, but challenging for the researchers and landholders trying to find them.<\/p>\n

Ms Gould said she suspected more koalas were in the Avonside area, and monitoring of the population would continue.<\/p>\n

Local Land Services has asked private landholders to help protect the koala habitat by controlling weeds and pests, and conducting bushfire management on their properties.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Koala Karaoke involves recording sounds in bushland to work out the extent of the koala population. (Supplied: Local Land Services)<\/p>\n

Landholders have also been encouraged take part in an audio monitoring survey in November called Koala Karaoke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Landholders just put a plastic recording device out in the bush for 14 nights, bring it back to us and we analyse the data,” Ms Gould said.<\/p>\n

“That will help us discover more about the extent of the koala population across the Southern Tablelands.”<\/p>\n

Dr Miller said the more koalas found, the better.<\/p>\n

“We are looking to learn more about the koala population so we can protect and restore their habitat to expand their population,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A hidden group of koalas has been discovered, with the use of thermal drones, for the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":349515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,171246,2846,171247,171252,39174,171250,171249,635,50,171248,31111,2417,43376,171251],"class_list":{"0":"post-349514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-avonside","10":"tag-discovery","11":"tag-jindabyne","12":"tag-koala-karaoke","13":"tag-koalas","14":"tag-lls","15":"tag-local-land-services","16":"tag-new","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-peak-view","19":"tag-population","20":"tag-sighting","21":"tag-snowy-mountains","22":"tag-thermal-drones"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115478110563806608","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}