Widespread Flooding in Queensland (and How to Help)

The flooding in Queensland has been pretty devastating - thousands of families have lost homes or possessions. If you'd like to donate money or supplies, please do so here: http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html

(Wow - $35mil already donated ... you out there are amazingly generous!)

And of course, wildlife and pets are being equally affected. If you'd like to help buy supplies and food for displaced animals, please do so here:
https://donate.rspcaqld.org.au/flood.

Thanks for all the support!

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Featured in (the journal of) Behavioural Ecology!

We recently got word that our study on koala communication will be published in the widely-acclaimed journal Behavioral Ecology. Great news! Here's a copy of the abstract (or summary) for the paper, written by W Ellis, F Bercovitch, S FitzGibbon, P Roe, J Wimmer, A Melzer, and R Wilson.

(names in bold are part of our Koala Ecology Group at UQ)

Bill in the field. Photo by Malcolm Ludgate

ABSTRACT (a summary of our study)

Acoustic communication mediates sociality in a variety of animals. One of the more ubiquitous vocal signals to have evolved is the sexual advertisement call of males. Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) males emit a sonorous bellow call during the breeding season, but no detailed studies of the calling context appear to have been published.

We used a novel remote sound detection network to monitor koala bellowing, whilst simultaneously collecting koala behavioral data using collar-mounted GPS units. Our approach enabled us to examine fine scale temporal variation in vocalization and spatial movements of free ranging koalas without direct 26 behavioral observations. 

Bellow occurrence was susceptible to weather conditions, with fewer calls occurring when wind speed and temperatures were high. The number of bellow vocalizations recorded during an annual period mirrored breeding activity, with nearly all male bellows recorded during peak mating season. The distance traveled by koalas and the occurrence of koala bellows both peaked around midnight, but only female travel distance during the breeding season was temporally correlated with bellow occurrence. 

We conclude that environmental factors might trigger male bellowing to launch the breeding season, and that these male vocal signals function more to attract females than to repel males. Female mate selection is probably an important component of male reproductive success in koalas, which is partly mediated by male bellow characteristics.

Written and transcribed by Amanda Niehaus, PhD

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The Currency of Science

I know I just talked about grants being where you get the money to do research. And that is true! But underlying it all is papers. Scientists have to write papers, convince other scientists that the work is important and interesting, and get these papers published in (hopefully) high-quality, international journals.

That's how scientists get the credibility to get the grants.

And it's meant to be the way that current science gets out there into the greater world. The really good papers or the ones that just about anyone would be interested in will be translated from scientific-journal-speak into everyday-non-scientist-speak. (Which is pretty much what we're doing here). Whether or not the method works is a topic for another day. Because at the minimum other scientists read these papers and use the results to formulate follow-on research questions and to back up (or not, as it may be) their own ideas on the subject.

That's how science works (most of the time). We plan out our research, we conduct our research, we analyse the results using lots of mathematical and statistical tools (which we may or may not enjoy), we write papers that detail:

• Where the research question fits in the broad scale of the world (and previous research)
• What makes the study new and exciting
• How the study advances science - via a new method, new results, or new ideas
• How scientists should move forward in the field, given the results of this study.

and then we try to get our paper into the highest-quality journal that we can. Because, honestly, more people are likely to see results published in Nature or Science than the Koala Journal of Ipswich. And, the better the journal, the more credibility the scientist gets. And, therefore, the more research funding.

Just one more tip on How to Succeed at Science.

Written by Amanda Niehaus, PhD

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Money Really Does Grow on Trees

Eucalypts, anyway.

Grants are what keeps scientific research going - whether it's from non-profit organisations, or donors, or the government - we need funding to keep conducting our research.

Which is why we were very pleased to be awarded a $110,000 grant from the Queensland State Government to study disease in koalas. Our group was 1 of 4 recipients from the new Koala Disease Fund - with the aim of figuring out how to keep these animals around.

We plan to use our grant to study the relationship between stress and disease. I can vouch for this relationship, from personal experience! I know whenever I'm stressed, I'm more prone to getting sick.

But what our group wants to know is whether this is what's happening in koalas, which seem to get diseases like chlamydia more commonly in areas where they have a lot of (potentially-stressful) contact with humans and our houses, dogs, roads, and noise.

So thanks, Queensland Government, for the support!

Written by Amanda Niehaus, PhD, on behalf of the Koala Ecology Group

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Koala Home Ranges

In the last post, we talked a bit about what home ranges are ... now it's time to see what the home ranges of urban koalas look like!

As part of her honours research, Ami tracked the home ranges of 6 koalas here in Brisbane. She can use this data to extrapolate to the wider koala population - her study basically gives us an idea of what koala life is like in the city.

The home range of one (female) koala.
Note there's a road between the 2 areas she inhabits!

Here's the kind of information that Ami obtained:

1. Home range sizes for urban koalas
2. Movement patterns
3. Proximity to roads - and whether individuals crossed roads
4. Use of bushland versus residential property

We need these data to know what kinds of dangers koalas face in their 'home' environments. Cars and dogs are two of the greatest threats to urban koalas, so it's important to know if koalas are moving around homes and across roadways. The next step will be to integrate this information into an urban conservation plan.

Well, and more research, of course.

Here's some of what Ami found:

• The home ranges of urban koalas were typically around 3 hectares in size. That's about the size of 6 soccer fields    (But don't talk to us about soccer today - Australia just missed out on the World Cup 2022! Very sad.)

• Many koalas were moving between trees in residential areas - and moving is when they are most vulnerable, as they have to descend the tree and walk along the ground to the next one.

• Koalas moved a lot adjacent to roadways, but only one individual seemed to cross the road regularly. 

We've still got more to cover in Ami's thesis, but that's for another time!

Written by Amanda Niehaus, PhD on behalf of the Koala Ecology Group

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Why Home Range Matters

We've been doing some interesting work on koala home ranges, but before we get into that we thought you might like to know more about the basic science behind our study!

As in:

What's a home range? 

Well, imagine that someone put a GPS tracker on you, and then plotted out where you went over the course of a few weeks or months. You might take a couple of long-ish trips during that time, but mostly you'd be moving around between your house and the shops and school and work. 

The scientist tracking you would compile all your GPS coordinates onto a map - where each coordinate would be represented as a dot. When the scientist had a look at where the dots were, there would likely be clusters around your house and the places you frequent most often.

That's your home range. 

Now, there are actually some complicated formulas underlying the calculation of home range. But don't worry - we'll leave that to the people doing the research to figure out. What we want to know is how home range can be used in conservation biology ... and what it tells us about koalas.

Home range analysis is useful because it tells us

a) how much an individual animal moves around

b) where it's going

c) how much it overlaps with other individuals

And this is useful information to know when you're trying to reserve land for the protection of a particular species - otherwise, imagine if you bought and protected a patch of land that included only one home range (that means one individual). Not ideal.

You can also determine prospective dangers for individuals, based on their home ranges. As we'll see for koalas, road traffic is a major threat - and using this method we can determine how likely it is for an urban koala to have a road in its home range.

Finally, an understanding of the behaviour of a species is important in its conservation. Do females share home ranges with males? Do larger males have larger or better home ranges? These questions may seem (to some) rather pointless ... but if you're going to spend taxpayers' money on protecting a species then you need to know how to make the best use of your (often minimal) budget. Knowing how individuals behave is critical to conservation efforts.

Want an example? Imagine you're going to buy a house. You love running, and sitting outside on your deck and drinking coffee and listening to the birds. You love your space.

So, are you going to buy a tiny apartment in the inner city? Probably not. If you take a moment and consider your own behaviour, you'll probably choose something you'll be happier with.

I hope that I've illustrated for you that home range is important. I've been a little wordy here, so I'm going to follow up this article with one about actual data on koala home ranges, from Ami's honours thesis. It's cool stuff - so stay tuned!

Written by Amanda Niehaus, PhD, on behalf of the Koala Ecology Group.

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Koalas in Housing Developments - The Pilot Study

We've been working on the ecology of koalas in urban environments for a number of years - but we wanted to share with you some of the data we got in a pilot study a few years ago. It told us a lot about how urban koalas make use of habitat in housing developments!

Many koalas inhabit SouthEast Queensland

In late 2008, we looked at the movements of koalas in a new residential development in South East Queensland (SEQ). The development, named Coomera Waters, is located in the rapidly expanding northern Gold Coast suburb of Coomera – an area that's also home to a substantial koala population.The pilot study was coordinated by Dr Robbie Wilson, Dr William Ellis and Dr Sean FitzGibbon and formed the basis of a short research project for Master of Science student Ms Maren Dammann.

Maren with a study subject

Despite the iconic status of koalas and their listing as Vulnerable in SEQ, very little is known about how they utilise urban landscapes, where there are many threats to their survival (e.g. dogs, cars, habitat loss). Koalas seem to be relatively resilient animals that can inhabit noisy, heavily disturbed environments provided there are sufficient food/shelter resources and threats to their survival are not too high. But real data showing how to ensure their survival is sadly lacking and desperately needed.

The Coomera Waters development was designed with consideration for the natural environment and wildlife inhabiting it. The estate has kept patches of bushland of varying sizes, some of which are linked through vegetated corridors - places where (hopefully) the koalas can move from one forested patch to another safely. Habitat surveys revealed the presence of a high-density koala population spread across several bush patches in Coomera Waters.

But we wanted to know - are koalas using the bushland corridors? And how much are they moving around? 

We fitted 6 koalas with GPS collars, which logged their position every two hours.

The GPS collar

After 3 – 4 months the six koalas were recaptured and the collars removed so that the logged movement data could be downloaded. The data were then plotted on an aerial image of the residential estate to examine the extent of their movements (See below: each colour represents a different koala).

Where koalas were found (via GPS) over the study. Each colour is a different koala and each dot is a GPS location.

The plotted data revealed several interesting aspects of the behavioural ecology of the collared koalas.


1. All of the koalas were found to occupy very small home ranges (meaning, the area where they live; 0.4 – 2ha). Two of the male koalas (yellow & purple) had closely overlapping home ranges and both koalas were recorded to move through residential properties to access bushland on the other side of these housing blocks (see 1. in the figure).



2. One of these male koalas (purple) and a female (green) were regularly recorded crossing suburban streets, suggesting their home range was distributed in bushland on either side of these streets and that they were able to avoid collisions with vehicles during the study (see 2. in the figure).



3. Two of the collared koalas (orange and green) were found to utilise a thin vegetated corridor that connects two larger bushland areas, suggesting that the characteristics of the corridor are suitable to facilitate koala dispersal (see 3. in the figure).



4. Another female (blue) was regularly recorded utilising trees that were retained in the backyard of residential properties adjacent to the bushland where majority of its home range occurred.



5. The sixth animal (female; pink) was never recorded to leave the small isolated patch it was first captured in but it used the entire patch. It's possible that this female was isolated in this patch when urban development of the area was commenced. Alternatively, the requirements of this female may be being met in this small patch, as male koalas may seek her out for breeding purposes and so she may have no need to move from the patch.

Maren and Bill measure an adult koala

Our pilot study of koalas at Coomera Waters raised more questions than it has answered. While it revealed interesting aspects of the species behavioural ecology, we've got lots more work to do! We've been doing lots more work on urban koalas since 2008 - we'll be keeping you posted!

Written originally by Dr Bill Ellis; Revised slightly by Dr Amanda Niehaus

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A New Collaboration

On their recent field trip, Bill and Sean introduced 3 collaborators to St Bees Island - and to the koala population that lives there. Aside from trying to obtain recordings of koala bellowing, talking science with these researchers was one of the main aims of the trip.

St Bees Island. Photo by Malcolm Ludgate

Who were they?

Scientists from the San Diego Zoo
Two of the researchers were from the San Diego Zoo, which is heavily involved in koala research. The zoo itself has a population of captive koalas, and scientists are trying to use their captive animals to learn as much as they can about koalas as a whole. I mean, koalas aren't exactly easy to study in the wild!

But it struck the researchers how different behaviour was between the zoo koalas and the wild koalas on St Bees Island - which begs the question ... can we make generalisations about animal behaviour from captive populations? This is a big question, relevant to a whole range of animals that are difficult to study in their native environments.

Acoustics scientist
The other collaborator was a scientist from the UK (and now the US) who studies acoustics. Dr. Ben Charlton is an expert on animal communication - and his work on deer and pandas (among other things) has set him up as a great collaborator for the Koala Ecology Group. We really want to know what koalas are saying to each other out there in the wild - and Ben is just the guy to help figure that out.

We look forward to his next trip out to work with us, and hopefully collect more data on koala calling!

Collaboration is so important in science - because the reality is that no one can be an expert in everything. So by working with people who are experts (in whatever you're interested in learning), it makes research easier and more productive!

Written by Amanda Niehaus, PhD, on behalf of the Koala Ecology Group

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