Shy Koalas to be lured with taped mating calls
Date: 19-Sep-02
Country: AUSTRALIA
A two-year survey by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is one of a raft of initiatives announced by the state government of New South Wales to stop further decline in the numbers of the shy marsupial.
Koala populations have shrunk with development, land clearing and bushfires driving the gum-leaf eating animal out of its habitat.
"Using the male's mating call in the breeding season has been found to be a good way to attract males who are territorial and the females so that we can confirm any koala population," NPWS spokesman Daniel Connolly told Reuters.
"Our cuddly national icon might look cute as anything but its mating call is like a mix between a donkey and a pig and can be heard for miles in the bush."
The survey in the Warrangamba Dam catchment area, a 350,000 hectare (865,000 acre) protected area of bushland southwest of Sydney, was organised after recent anecdotal sightings of the koala, which was not known to live in that area.
Connolly said NPWS officers would use the mating call technique, examine droppings and scratchings on trees and spotlight over 300 sites in the study area to try to confirm if there is a resident koala population.
"If we can locate a koala population in the area we can try to improve the protection of that location," he said.
The koala is not an endangered animal in Australia and there are an estimated 100,000 or more living along the country's east coast.
But animal welfare groups argue that the koala population has fallen dramatically in the past century with millions of koalas shot in the 1920s for their fur, loss of habitat taking a toll, and cars and dogs believed to kill up to 4,000 a year.
