 Good morning and welcome to the fifth session of our Koala CoLab 2021 conference series. My name is Geoff Lundy Jenkins and I'm the Director of Southern Wildlife and Koala Operations within the Department of Environment and Science and I'm the emcee for each of the six separate theme sessions that make up this year's Koala CoLab series. Before we start this morning, I'd first like to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Australian Islander peoples as the traditional owners and custodians of the country on which each of us is attending today's virtual event and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. In doing this, we acknowledge the continuous living culture of First Nations people, their diverse languages, customs and traditions, knowledges and systems. We acknowledge the deep relationship, connection and responsibility to land, sea and sky country as an integral element of First Nations identity and culture. Country is sacred, everything on the land has meaning and all people are one with it. We acknowledge First Nations peoples' sacred, sacred connection as central to culture and being. First Nations peoples speak to country, listen to country, sing up country, dance up country, understand country and long for country. We acknowledge and thank First Nations people for the enduring relationship connecting people, country and ancestors. An unbreakable bond that safely stewarded and protected the land, waters and sky for thousands of generations. Today's event is the fifth of a series of 16 conference sessions, split over six weeks and builds on the success of the inaugural Koala CoLab event that was convened at Lone Pine in 2018. Today's sessions were exploring the theme of rescue, rehabilitation, relocation and release of koalas. Our first presentation in today's session will be provided by Karen Scott and we'll look at koala release procedure in the Gold Coast region and Wild Care's collaboration with Carumban Wildlife Hospital in the city of Gold Coast. Karen is the president and koala coordinator for Wild Care Australia Incorporated, which is a registered wildlife rescue organisation in South East Queensland. Karen has been a wildlife volunteer for 22 years and has been a koala rescuer and carer for 17 years. So we welcome Karen to the stage to provide her presentation. Thank you so much, Geoff and firstly I just wanted to say a big thank you to the department for putting together this year's online conference and giving me an opportunity to have a chat about our Gold Coast koalas. Just by way of background, in case you have not heard of Wild Care before, so we are a group of volunteers, we have no paid staff, we've been around for quite a few years now and like all rescue groups around this area, we have a 24-hour rescue all season of wildlife. So in terms of koala releases, I think for anyone that works or volunteers in the rescue and rehab sector, we all know too well that there's a long list of challenges when it comes to reintroducing koalas back into urban environments after their rehabilitation and the Gold Coast is certainly no different. So koala rescuers in all urban areas are faced with the same challenges every day that we're faced with down here. So in Wild Care we work very closely with the Corumban Wildlife Hospital and I guess most of the koalas that we do rescue are admitted to Corumban. Some of those are then also sent on to Australia Zoo for their rehabilitation as well. So we're being working hard to develop a procedure to make sure that we are actually assessing the release site for each individual koala just so that we make sure that we're getting the best possible outcome for them. And I guess on the Gold Coast over recent years we've seen significant loss of habitat to make way for a variety of purposes. So housing estates, city infrastructure, large shopping estates and there's very large state government projects as well such as light rail and one of the most unique koala rescuer. They would tell you the same thing that they often feel very anxious about releasing koalas back into these areas and I guess the greatest fear for a lot of us is to release an animal and you know get a call from through your hotline a day or two or a week later and you just hope and pray that it's not that koala that you've just released and it is utterly gut wrenching both for the rescuers but also for the hospital staff as well who put a lot of time and effort into rehabilitating these koalas. So it is a bit of a tough one. So the release procedure that we've now put in place has evolved over quite a few years and it really came about because it wasn't previous to this a huge amount of communication between all of the stakeholders when it came to the actual time. So it is something that has evolved over time continues to evolve as more elements added to into it as things on the Gold Coast change. So and I guess the catalyst for this came about quite a few years ago when there was the the land clearing around East Coomeras started to become more more of an issue and we did have a koala that was had been rescued from up there had a short stint in rehab and then was ready for somebody just offered to release it which was lovely and they took the koala back up to that location where it was found. It was beautiful blocks of land with lots of nice lovely koala habitat and the koala was released and it wasn't until the next day that we found out it had been released and it was actually one of the council staff it was actually released onto a block that was imminently due to be cleared. So I guess that was the catalyst for us to make sure that there was a system in place but between the hospital and the rescuers and myself as the coordinator that we would have a chat about the the release first is to make sure that we were that we were doing getting the best possible outcome and we were covering those sort of issues. So ultimately our objective is to make sure we're making a well as possible release location and to do that we need to tap into as much information as we can. So we don't use this full procedure for all koalas there's still a lot of koalas on the grokos that don't need a lot of thought and planning and most of our urban koalas particularly the mature aged ones are able to be released back to or very close to their original rescue location anyway. So our first preference is always to put the animal back where they came from and we aren't advocating for koalas to be to be moved translocated and in fact we probably only submit to DES a couple of application translocation requests each year. Unfortunately this year has been a little bit busier we've had some koalas doing crazy things and turning up in weird spots so we certainly are starting to see a higher frequency of ones that need to be put somewhere a little bit different to where they came from. So I guess over the years it's just become it's not quite as easy as just looking up Google map Google Earth anymore and picking a nearby green space on a map because sometimes you do that and you go out there and that green space doesn't even exist anymore so we need to look at more reliable sources of information. We have seen a huge number of koalas that we have had to have more input from everybody to make sure that we are finding the most suitable release location and some of these koalas have been found on the M1 some of them are fortunate enough we've been able to rescue them before they've been hit or they've only miraculously had minor injuries and other koalas have just been in heavily urban areas with absolutely no habitat in the eye and I think all koala rescuers know these ones they're the ones you go out to and you think what in the world is the koala doing here how to be even get here so so we're certainly seeing a big increase in these ones over the last few months. So I was just going to outline what our procedure is and I'm sure most groups are already doing this or at least doing most of these elements and some people may have other things that they need to consider based on where they live so that's just a summary of what we do can do sort of go through. I think we did it as collect as much data as we possibly can and this is generally done between wild care and Karambin and Kate Yock down at Karambin Wildlife Hospital who is one of the vet nurses it's her responsibility to coordinate when the koalas are coming up for release and so we work very closely with Kate to do that so this is all the information that we collect and use that as the basis initially to assess what we're going to do with the koala so the sex the age is really important so particularly we need to assess whether it's a mature aged koala or if it's potentially a dispersing young. The weight's important as well and we check that to make sure it correlates with their estimated weight particularly for those boys. We also look at the original rescue location and try to determine if and why it's not suitable for release and some of those are quite obvious like the M1 and etc but there may be other circumstances and factors that we take into account as to why it might not be suitable. We also look for the reason why particularly important for those ones that are found in immediate danger or in areas where we know that there is a lot of clearing so potentially there's been clearing very close nearby or they're even on a site that has already been cleared or it's about to be cleared. Important as well as that. So therefore the repeat offenders that come in we've had some koalas that have been rescued sometimes we may opt to put them back where they came from and then if we've continued to get too many calls about them or they get hit by a car again or get rescued again then we'll add that information in as well because sometimes that's quite relevant. We also look at any if there's anything else specific that's going to have a negative impact on that original site. So particularly things like the presence of aggressive dogs, residents that aren't particularly koala friendly and all of those things will play into that as well. And we also look at the anticipated release date and this is something that we've been doing a lot more now and have a bit better system in. So Kate down at the hospital actually flags each koala as a category so either urgent, moderately urgent or non-urgent. So those koalas that are in care so because I've got chlamydia we know that it's not too urgent that we deal with them straight away but there's some koalas that come in that are in immediate danger when they're healthy they get a vet check they're fully assessed and they're cleared for release very quickly. So we want to get them out pretty fast. Kate doesn't send an email to myself and if necessary to the council staff and that at least that way it's flagged that we need to get on to that one pretty quickly. And we've got a good system that sometimes even you know once it's rescued and before it even hits the wildlife hospital we're already starting that process to make sure that the time spent in the hospital is as as short as possible. So we do do that very quickly and that also gives us an opportunity to highlight those ones more consultation with the council or where we may need to apply to DES for a translocation request as well. So in terms of the next steps so we often then need to consult with the Gold Coast Council. So not all releases need to go to the council staff but there are there's certainly quite a few that Kate and I just deal with ourselves. But there are some times where we do need to seek the input from the City of Gold Coast conservation officers in the planning and environment department. So we are really fortunate that we've had a really great relationship and had tremendous support from the conservation officers over years and over the years and they've certainly got a lot of access to information and resources which wildlife volunteers often don't have so and that's just meant we've been able to have a more positive outcome for the koalas. So there's a few ways which the conservation officers help with the assessment of those. So they can provide some input into the original rescue location and whether that's suitable. So that might be again like where they'll be able to tap into that planning information. If there's large-scale clearing nearby the they may have some input from some of their recent population surveys. So they do surveys quite regularly in those areas and that's that gives us a bit of insight as well as to their capacity for that site to take more animals. The other thing is our council's now been for quite some years been collecting sightings data from residents and that data is now started to really build up and that's quite important for us to look at as well. And I guess more so it's important for areas where we don't see very few we don't see very many koala rescues so and that just gives us an opportunity to actually assess activity levels and identify those corridors where koalas are frequently seen. So and that just means that we're able to return animals to that area or if we've got some confidence that there are is in fact a koala population doing okay through them. The other important thing is getting them in the actual area management unit for council so they're charged with their council conservation areas and if we're looking to release the koala back into that area then we do need to get their approval to do that. That also gives the NAMU staff an opportunity to advise us if there's any activity happening within the conservation area that might really that might affect the release of the koala but also our volunteer safety as well which is very important. So that might include hazard reduction burns but also they're very important to give us advice as to the best access points into some of the conservation areas and they can also provide some information on the accessibility of the site so some sites are a little bit more rugged and that's certainly be helped to to be able to pass that information on to the volunteers doing the releases as well. So also importantly is the animal control department so they are quite active in conservation areas doing trapping and animal control measures dogs so they'll be able to advise if there's any increased activity in that area or if they're actually working in that area so when that happens the areas are closed off people can't go walking through there including including us so that just helps to to I guess save us from picking an animal for release, getting to a site and to find that it's closed and you've got a koala in a cage that really wants to get out so and also from a planning perspective so council can identify those properties that are subject to D and they're going to be immediately cleared so and as I said those east kuma east kupuma areas that's been very important over recent years happening up in that area so that just gives us some comfort that we're proposing to release them is not going to get cleared anytime soon. Council's also got access to much better mapping system than we do so good old google earth just isn't is it really sort of always that reliable so they're able to provide much more up-to-date mapping to help us identify release sites so and they also assist us with assessing regional ecosystem data as well which is important if we're planning to do a translocation request so some of the other things that we look at is if there's any fire management happening and that's been that sort of came about we did have a koala some months ago that was e-marked for release we picked a release site and it got released and then a couple of days later there was a notification that there was a hazard reduction burn occurring in the land adjacent to it so we do now because of that our system evolved and we added this into it just to make sure that we are checking that there's no HRBs occurring so we do get now the alert emails from the Gold Coast bushfire planning and mitigation staff and that notifies us if there's any hazard reduction burns coming up there's also a really handy facebook page for down here and I'm sure that there's similar pages in other areas and it's I think it's handy to tap into that not just for planning releases but just for general wildlife things as well so so that's um yeah certainly the last few months has been quite a lot of hazard reduction burns occurring around the Gold Coast and I think it's actually a really important tool for wildlife rescuers full stop so definitely a good resource to tap into the other thing we need to do is get permission to release the animals so council um council land we would as I said be going through the NAMU department to get permission from them if it's state land then um getting permission from Queensland Parks and Wildlife Ranges so that would be mostly really applicable if the koala had come from within or very close to the boundaries of a national park or state forest but that's an important process that we should be following as well and the owners as well so this is a good opportunity for all for all of us to engage with those property owners and hopefully we can put them back onto the property where they came from if it's safe to do so um we actually also a few months ago started a release site where members of the community could actually sign up to put their name down for their property to be the different animal that's just given us a few extra options so that if we have a koala come from say a busy street we can have a look on that database to see if there's any property owners in that immediate area that are happy to have animals released on their property so that lets us get them further off the road but still within that koala's home range the um the next thing we need to do is if we are going to apply to DES for a translocation so um down here Wild Care usually initiates these things historically over the years so um so to do that we've now actually developed I guess a bit more of a standardized request process to do that we actually came up um worked with Brent to come up with a template so that we can make sure that all the information from all the stakeholders is included in that document right from the word go and that just helps us to make sure that there's like giving everything to the department and then the delegate can transfer cash in every request um a bit more efficiently so the information that's included there's a section that Kate completes from Karamban Hospital so that's got all the health assessment and any disease veterinary information and also a proposed release date so so we can also then pass that on to the department to say well this is we're ahead of time um this koala's going to be in care for say another three or four weeks and then um or while otherwise this one's particularly urgent we really need to get it out quickly um so I usually then complete the information on behalf of Wild Care so any of the rescue information reasons why we're looking for translocation and if there's any other circumstances as well so sometimes what we do is if there's an area of land where we want to release the koala into we might have some extra information that might support that application so so for example one of our translocation approvals earlier in the year we wanted to put that into a council reserve where we knew that there had been a large adult male had come out of that area and he unfortunately didn't survive to be released back in there so you know I guess you know kind of thought well that in in theory that should provide an opportunity to put another male back in there a young male the city of Gold Coast conservation officers also put information in so information from their koala surveys as well as anything else that might be relevant and also their access to their mapping systems that they've got better access to so at the end of the day we just try to make sure that all the data is added in as quickly as possible so we can get that off to the department and hopefully streamline that process as well so the last step is actually getting them all back and this is where we do like to try to offer to the original rescuers who were involved in that process to see if they would like to release them sometimes the hospital staff as well somebody might be particularly fond of a particular animal that works so hard over such a long period of time so sometimes they like to be involved as well which is really lovely and it also gives us an opportunity to touch base with the members of public and sometimes obviously they might like to be there as well so and I guess that's really important I think that's really important more and more these days that we do do that engagement with the community there's a lot of koalas unfortunately that come in that are to be saved so few ones back out and sharing that with them is really important so I guess in summary it's not rocket science and it might seem quite insignificant in the grant scheme of things but I think it certainly helped us down here to make sure that we have got a process that we follow that was and to make sure that we're getting those releases assessed as soon as possible that means healthy koalas aren't sitting in cages for longer than they need to be they're not sitting taking up valuable rehab spaces and it also gives us an opportunity to make sure that all of the stakeholders are getting an opportunity to to contribute I can also recognize the ground knowledge and everyone I guess has got their has got their expertise in certain areas and that's really good that everyone's working together I think to do that I think it's also got the added advantage of being able to share the responsibility for making some pretty difficult decisions and I know that's from my perspective that's certainly been a been very beneficial because there's really some koalas that we're just sort of left sitting there we're all shaking our heads between all of us that the council staff Karumba and myself are just all thinking what in the world are we going to do with this koala so these are really stressful any any rescue will tell you how stressful this is and having that decision having to be made by just one person I think sometimes it's a little bit fair unfair so so collectively we can actually make that decision about whether to put them back where they were found or very close by within the fight or actually seek a trend quest same and certainly that's been that's certainly been a great outcome as well and just finally I just wanted to if I could please just acknowledge a few people the City of Girl Coast Conservation Officers have just been so incredible I mean so supportive to our wildlife volunteers over so many years and they work so hard within council to protect their our local koala populations you know Alicia Josh and previously John Kalligan they've all just been so incredible to work with and we really appreciate all of their help the same as that all the other council officers other companies have been so supportive to make sure that we get the best outcome for our rescue koalas I also just want to say a huge thank you to the wildlife facilities Karumba and Australia Zoo RSPCA and Mogul Rehabilitation Centre so vet nurses admin staff and volunteers our wildlife rescuers and our wildlife were just the absolutely lost without you all and you just do such an incredible job and you know it just it's incredible to get these animals back out again and that's because of that your hard work in particular I just wanted to say thank you to Kate at Karumba and Kate has just been an incredible job with monitoring keeping on top of the admin side of the releases and we have everything goes so much more smoothly now and I also just wanted to acknowledge for those that aren't aware Wires from New South Wales actually funded a Gold Coast based wildlife rescue unit for up this way they pay for a staff member full-time and they also paid for a vehicle fully and we were really really it's quite a lot of volunteers Amy Rigg she was successful in getting that job and Amy's one of our experienced trauma carers and koala rescues so she was able to step state into that role and in the last in the first 12 months of operating Amy attended nearly 300 koala calls just in the Gold Coast just her alone so some of those rescues while care members went and assisted with but it's just been such an incredible help to while care volunteers to have a paid staff member available through business hours to go and attend to the koalas and it just means that you know for us it you know it's volunteers at work you know the industries we don't have to be rushing out of work so often to go and assist so I just want to say a big thank you to Amy she's just done such an incredible job and we're so incredibly thankful for the support of wires for funding that position I think I don't think they get enough support and recognition for what they do they just work so incredibly hard they I just it's not a lot of people that you can ring at two o'clock in the morning that will answer their phone and they literally will drop everything to go at any time of the day or night so they see some some pretty gut-wrenching things and attend some pretty horrific rescue scenarios with koalas so you know whether that's an animal that's severely injured and dies in their arms or whether they're going to a really sick koala who they know that it's going to get euthanised but they all go the extra mile even if it means driving around for an hour to get really good leaf just to make sure that the koala has a full belly before they go off to the hospital um and I think I could take the liberty of speaking on behalf of the other I haven't seen all the koala skewers are in this area I think you all do such an incredible job and I'm really thankful for everything that you do and that's that's pretty much it for me thanks very much Karen and yeah I just had my thanks to you for providing that thanks to the numerous volunteers and groups that provide that service to our koalas across south east Queensland and and more broadly um you've talked generated a couple of questions one of the first ones that's there is have you had any experiences where koalas have been released into planted areas as offsets or rehabilitation areas and has that been successful uh no so no we haven't had any experience with doing that down here yep okay um there's one here that know what would be the key things you'd advise koala rescue and care groups to do if they want to build good relationships with local wildlife hospital and councils similar to the ones you've just described I think just reaching out I know like in all the council areas and it's been interesting watching some of the other presentations it's really great people in all of the councils I think it's just um taking that initiative to um to do that and I guess we've just been really fortunate over many years that um that we've had that that touch base with them and find out who it is send them an email and organise to to have a chat to them because they have they got such a wealth of knowledge themselves and um yeah I think it's I think it can only benefit all of us in the long run okay thanks there's a question here which I might tackle first and then happy to throw to you if you wanted to add anything further to that there's a question that just is when is a translocation request needed how far from the original rescue site what is the process for translocation approval um as I said I'll speak to that the koala conservation plan prescribes a requirement for koalas to be released into what's phrased prescribed habitat and the the conservation plan details that this is um koala map koala habitat that is within um one kilometer of the original release site and that's the preference is that the animals are either released at the site that they're collected from or within one kilometer of that that location the conservation plan then applies a hierarchy and if there aren't suitable areas or there is potential for the koala to be placed at risk by releasing it at the original site then there is the option for the animal to be released into suitable habitat within a five kilometer radius of that capture site it's only in instances where the proposal is to release the koala outside of that five kilometer radius that there's a requirement to submit a request to the department for authority to release a koala and um those those requests are dealt with through a team that I manage and the information that Karen outlined is the type of information that's required it's a justification with regards to the rationale for not releasing the koala at its original site or within five kilometers and that can include information about the suitability of habitat it can include information about the fact that koalas have previously been released at these sites and their fate has not been great or that the same individual koala has been released previously on multiple occasions and been returned to care so there's a number of reasons and rationale it could be provided for releasing koalas outside that five kilometer area. In considering the sites outside five kilometers as Karen said it's important that we have information about the habitat that you're proposing that we have information about the security of the land in terms of whether it's destined for clearing whether the proposed site is supported by the landholder including the local government in that area so all that information is key to us assessing and reviewing those types of stations. I'm not sure if you wanted to add anything further there Karen. Yeah I was just going to say like in terms of how many translocation approvals a request we would put in you know some years there might just be one or two this year's just been particularly busy we've had a few koalas around the Helensvale area and they've been captured in their kumba connector sort of section where that's going to go so they've been referred through to DES and we've had two koalas at Burley Heads, the Burley Heads population is a little bit isolated and there's so we've looked to translocate multi-disposing males only so it's not very often you know I'll just look back on our years you know 2019 I think we had two requests so so generally there's been suitable habitat within the five kilometers marked it's just the ones that are you know sometimes the ones that just found in really weird spots or that have where there has just been quite significant I guess other factors that are that are contributed to it so it's not something that we have to do yeah it's not something we have to do every week but certainly finding habitat within that 5k mark generally we can but we still go through that same process and try to find the best the best place for them. Yeah no that's great and certainly with the sort of increase over the last 12 months that's allowed us I guess to to work with wild care and other groups to improve the process and the procedures that we use in assessing and developing the information to support these applications so it's it's been really positive working with Karen's team and also with the wildlife hospitals who are also preparing these types of applications I'd certainly encourage other wildlife carers to develop those relationships with the wildlife hospitals and the local councils where these types of proposals might be required because clearly with both those groups involved means the quality the application we receive and the justifications are are much stronger. The final question I had here was just and again it might be one that I need to answer is where does the data that collect that go and who is it used by so at this stage that information is provided to the department the department assesses both the mapping and the justification for those requests and I guess issues in authority because again under the conservation plan there is an authority required and each of those authorities relates to that specific instance so in providing approval for these types of releases we would be providing a letter that authorizes wild care or a specific carer or wildlife hospital to release a particular koala at a particular site so that that information is held by the department and certainly useful in us also monitoring how many animals are moved to different locations and keeping track of where animals from rehabilitation are being released. There is another question that's just come through and that was do you tag all the koalas you rescue is that how you know if in some cases they they come back or a return for care? Yeah so Cromben Wildlife Hospital and I believe all the hospitals most of the hospitals actually do that they're all microchipped and all e-tagged and so the hospitals have data of that and DES collect their e-tagged data as well and some of our rescuers some of our members live there are koalas and some of them know them even by sight can look at them up in a tree and go oh well that's so and so so yeah data as well so if there is a koala come up we can look in the e-tag data and check who it was. That's great okay we're going to have to close off there just so that we can keep going with the next session thanks very much for your presentation today Karen and for anyone who wants to join the next session again go back up to your screen to return to the timeline and join that next session so thanks very much Karen. Thanks Jeff. Here good morning and welcome back to the second presentation of this morning's koala co-lab conference series our second presentation today will be provided by Dr Tim Portis and Tim will provide an overview of the RSPCA wildlife hospital operations. Tim is a veterinarian who has worked exclusively with free ranging and captive wildlife since 1999. He's provided veterinary support to conservation projects for numerous species including the northern corroboree frog eastern betong, eastern koal, lead bitus possum, northern herinose wombat, southern brush tail rock wallaby, Sumatran rhinoceros and Sumatran tiger. His work involves health evaluation, disease risk analysis, anesthesia and sedation, assessment of short and long-term physiological responses to conservation translocations and disease investigation in free ranging populations. He's currently the senior wildlife veterinarian for the RSPCA Queensland Wildlife Clinic where his work since 2016. His professional interests include the health and disease of free ranging Australian wildlife, veterinary aspects of reintroduction programs, welfare and conservation translocations, and research programs involving free ranging wildlife and the restraint and anesthesia of free ranging wildlife. So I invite Tim to provide his presentation. Everyone and thank you for the opportunity to present this morning at Koala Coalab. As Jeff mentioned I'm going to give a brief overview of Koala admission trends to RSPCA Queensland's wildlife clinic over a five-year period. Just by way of introduction and to set the scene RSPCA Queensland sees a very large number of native wildlife admissions every year and in 2020 we saw 24,727 native wildlife admissions and they were admitted predominantly to the wildlife clinic which is located at the Wake Hole Animal Care Campus and a smaller proportion was seen at the Yamundi Wildlife Rehabilitation Center which is a a small rehab center on the Sunshine Coast which is also run by RSPCA Queensland. Of these admissions 7,585 were marsupials accounting for about 31 percent of our admissions and of the these animals are 881 in 2020 were koalas accounting for 12 percent of our total marsupial admissions and some three and a half percent of our total wildlife admissions. So while koalas make up a relatively small proportion of wildlife admissions to RSPCA Queensland as many people who work with them know their veterinary care and rehabilitation requires a large resource input. So we have a team of four full-time and five part-time veterinarians 24,7 veterinary nursing care cutters to provide the necessary resources for koala care. Koalas coming into the RSPCA Queensland's wildlife clinic come from a number of different sources predominantly they come from the various koala rescue and care groups and individuals that operate within the within the region. Our animal ambulances also collect koalas from veterinary clinics and increasingly are being called upon to rescue koalas from from the wild directly and a much smaller proportion come in via members of the public and these are usually cases where a member of the public has hit koala with with their own vehicle or found a koala on the side of the road. This presentation provides a quick and dirty review of koala over a five-year period to RSPCA Queensland. In terms of materials and methods we selected data from the most recent complete five-year period which was into the 31st of December 2020 RSPCA Queensland uses a delta operational and medical record system which is used in Australian cities. Design for recording information for wildlife but it's a system that we use and there are some limitations to that which we'll discuss a little bit later on. We also rely very heavily on volunteers to enter our data as well so there are some limitations associated with that. Nonetheless the data were extracted from our database using the report function that's available in this software package. The data were then exported to Microsoft Excel for review. The data were sanitised and any records that were incomplete in the fields that we were interested in looking at were excluded from further analysis. The pivot table function was used to stratify the data and today I'm essentially presenting the raw data with minimal analysis. So we looked at the following data from the report. Essentially we're interested in reporting on the monthly annual and total koala admissions, monthly and total admissions by sex, yearly admission area, the cause of admission and outcomes and the time to outcome. So a total of 3,333 koalas admitted to RSPCA but due to incomplete data, that's only 2,804 koala records included in this study and I'm presenting the results graphically from here on in. So if we look at annual and total admissions for koalas you can see that the results are quite variable over that five-year period. It's important to note that RSPCA queens and really only started to see koalas in a significant way in 2016. Koalas were seen prior to that but we really only set up to accommodate them appropriately around that time. There was a peak in 2019 and high in 2020 and it's important to note that there's approximately 500 odd records that were excluded from this data. If we look at total combined the admissions for that five-year period you can see that there's a pretty marked seasonal trend to admissions. So koala numbers really start to tick up in July and remain relatively high through December and September is the peak month for RSPCA queens and as far as koala admissions are concerned. This slide is just another way of presenting that data but gives you some ideas of the numbers that we've seen over that five-year period. So this is mean monthly koala admissions over a five-year period and you can see again that September is that peak month and we're seeing you know over that five-year period 82 koalas coming in in September on average. So just under three animals a day for that number evaluation. If we look at how admissions are affected by sex predominantly we're seeing males with 1382 male koalas presented in that time period and 1159 females presented over that same time period. You'll also see that some 263 animals were listed as unknown and this represents one of the limitations of our record keeping system. If someone does not know sex of the animal at the point of admission it's listed as unknown that will subsequently be determined during the following veterinary evaluation but unless someone actually goes back and updates that information the sex remains unknown. If we look at monthly admissions by sex over that five-year period not surprisingly males predominate in most months but interestingly in July and August the number of males presumably that's related to breeding behavior. Another interesting feature of this data is that October November December females seem to predominate I guess the obvious caveat there is there are quite large numbers of animals of unknown sex so that may influence that. I don't have an obvious explanation for that change but presumably that relates in some way to breeding behavior for those koalas. It represents the data so over that five the data for the local government areas that we receive koalas from so over that five-year period we received koalas from a total of 31 local government areas and a couple of animals from interstate jurisdictions as well. Listed here are the top 14 local government areas from which we receive koalas or received koalas in that time period. These are local government areas for which koalas were presented in double digits and you can see that Morton Bay, Brisbane, Somerset and Scenic Rim really are the main areas from which koalas come to us and you can also see that there's been quite a that that spike in 2019 is sort of well reflected for most LGA's in this graph as well. If we look at causes of admission for koalas the data that we have here is somewhat limited for a range of reasons. Disease accounts for approximately 29% of admissions unfortunately with our database we don't record categories of disease. That information is included in the veterinary notes but is not searchable so drilling down to more detail as to the main reasons for admission is quite challenging with the search function or the report function for this software package. If we look at hit by car and dog attacks so traumatic causes if we combine those two hit by car is 22% and dog attack accounts for 9% of admission so 31% of the admissions to RSPCA Queensland are the result of trauma so trauma is the leading course for koalas to come into care with us. You'll also note that there is quite large numbers of animals in the unknown and other category representing some 17.6% of koalas coming into care. This again is data admission so the person who is entering this data may not know the outcome. It is subsequently determined during veterinary exam but unfortunately those data fields have not been updated. Interestingly we also see quite a large number some 11.6% of the koalas coming in are considered to be under threat and they are from three different categories those that are displaced so they may be koalas that have been displaced due to habitat clearing. They may simply be in areas of not non-suitable koala habitat. Also koalas that are found in traffic although the definition of in traffic is quite loose sometimes these animals are found in a tree near the roadside. They tend to be brought in for evaluation and also koalas that are under threat due to being in a yard where dogs are present. Frequently these animals have either minimal injuries or no clinical signs and there is a relatively rapid turnaround with these animals being released. It's also interesting to note that bushfire being listed as a cause for admission accounted for only 1.8% of admissions to RSPCA Queensland so given the focus on bushfires and koalas over 2019-2020 it is interesting that they constitute quite a small proportion of admissions for us over that time period. So somewhat grim information I guess in terms of outcomes for admitted koalas so half of the koalas are euthanised. Another 7% are listed as being dead on arrival. This figure probably looks a little bit higher than what it is. We have a number of rescue groups that present deceased koalas to us so that we can age them body score them and collect some more for metric data for them. So these are animals that are obviously not being presented for veterinary care. Some of them are animals that are brought to us but die on the way. Just under 30% or 29% of koalas are subsequently released back to the wild. Some 5% remaining care and again this figure is probably artificially elevated. These are animals that have been sent to wildlife rehabilitators. They have most likely been subsequently released and that information is either not being provided to us or has been provided and not not updated in our record keeping system. Some 3% of koalas that come in die unassisted and there's some arrival can agree again depends on who's entering the data. They may be listed as an unassisted death rather than dead on arrival. And some 2% are transferred out so these are animals that are either transferred to another institution for ongoing care for which we don't have an outcome or for which we haven't recorded an outcome or animals that have been transferred to a zoo or fauna park process. I also looked very briefly at time to outcomes. A number of days in care prior to euthanasia or a number of days in care prior to release. This data was highly variable so I just looked at the first three weeks to give some idea of trends and you can see in terms of number of days in care prior to euthanasia that a large proportion of koalas that were euthanized were euthanized on the day that they came in so at the point of admission and you know sort of a number of others were then euthanized within the next sort of 48 hours and then the numbers variable thereafter. In terms of number of days in care prior to release you can see that quite a large number of animals are released sort of in that first 48 hour period and then the numbers kind of trail off over the subsequent time period. In terms of discussing the findings of this kind of brief study we acknowledge that there's some very significant limitations to the study. Some 16 percent of admissions were excluded due to incomplete data sets and as I mentioned that is a result of the software package that we use and also reflects the variability in data entry as a result of relying quite heavily on volunteers so obviously there's quite a lot of data that we are missing as a result of that being excluded. Also there are some data fields that are able to be listed as or recorded as unknown or other at admission we subsequently determine that information so it could be sex or reason for admission but that information is not subsequently updated in our database. We do record detailed clinical notes for all koalas that come in but this data is not readily searchable within the medical notes function so this limits our ability to look at some of the things we might be interested in. Yearly admissions are quite variable but there was a marked spike in 2019. We have a marked seasonal trend with July to December being our peak month for intact. We presume that this is consistent with breeding data and it's in line with several previous studies. I guess one of the exceptions to this is that these studies found peaks in spring and we're starting to see an uptick in July and August so the months of winter. We have more males than females admitted but it's seen in October, November and December. 59 percent of the koalas come to us from three local government areas Morton Bay, 13 percent from Brisbane City and 11 percent from Somerset so small number predominate in terms of koala admissions for us. The most important reasons for admission are trauma. Some 31 percent of koalas coming in present as a result of trauma and this record this reflects the highly urbanised there are many of the LGA's from which koalas present to us and disease constitutes the incoming koalas. In terms of diseases chlamydia is by far and away the predominant one that we see however we also see a number of diseases that we would presume are associated with koala retrovirus although you know causality has obviously not been proven but this includes a range of neoplastic diseases some what we would probably consider opportunistic infections in other species and a range of other problems and these findings are broadly a major epidemiological studies that have looked at koala admissions to wildlife hospitals within Australia. Most koalas that presented for evaluation were euthanised and they were euthanised either due to the severity of the disease process. These were koalas that were either emaciated at presentation or had severe chlamydia disease that was considered to be likely to be refractory to treatment. In the case of traumatic cases the severity of injury was often the reason for euthanasia and any koala that had an injury or disease for which they could but ultimately the prognosis for release was poor were also euthanised. As mentioned previously less than one third were released back to the wild. These findings are in line with Burton and Tribe who reviewed intake to southeast Queensland wildlife hospitals previously but the release numbers were lower than the findings and the decision to euthanise most koalas was made most often at the point of admission some 31% and of the koalas that were released some 28% were released within the first 48 hours post admission. Just finally I wanted to talk very briefly about the 2019 spike in admissions. There's potentially many reasons for this spike. At the time late 2019 saw some bushfires in southeast Queensland and we had a large number of koalas present to us in November and we kind of always felt that the spike in 2019 was probably the result of bushfires but when you look at the data some 337 koalas came from bushfire affected LGA's and some 398 koalas came from non bushfire affected LGA's. So while bushfires may have been approximate cause in some locations I sort of started to wonder whether climatic conditions could be the ultimate cause for the spike in numbers across the region. If you go to the Bureau of Meteorology you can see that 2019 was Australia's warmest with an annual national mean temperature 1.5 degrees Celsius above average. Australia's driest year on record with nationally average rainfall 40 percent below the average. So 277.6 millimeters. There was severe drought in Southern and I think there's a real opportunity to get this. I mean I think it would be great to combine the data from the various hospitals in the network. I relay this with some climate information and perhaps enlist the help of an epidemiologist to kind of drill down to see whether this is real or whether there's some other reason for that spike in admissions. So with that that concludes my talk. I'd just like to acknowledge the wonderful staff at RSPCA Queensland who are dedicated to the rehabilitation and release of koalas. I'd also like to acknowledge the many koala rescue and rehabilitation groups and individual koalas to us and for the all for all the hard work that they do and I would like to acknowledge Mandy Patterson and Annie Peterson for assistance with data retrieval and analysis and I'm happy to answer any questions if there is time. Thanks very much Tim. Yeah there's certain time there and you've certainly generated some interest as well through your talk so thanks very much. Question here was given your analysis what do you think are some of the key challenges or emerging issues that wildlife hospitals will be faced with in the future? Particularly with the the climate data and the spike in 2019 obviously that was highly speculative but there is some other work going on around Australia that suggests that climate changing climate may impact koalas so I think that this this could be a big area for us in future. Obviously an ongoing trend for urbanisation and the high numbers of koalas that present as a result of trauma I think there's a lot of work that potentially needs to be done to mitigate some of those risks because essentially the work that we're doing is really a Band-Aid solution you know a lot of we need to sort of address some of these problems at the source once the animal comes in as you can see quite often there's not a lot that we can do. There's a couple of questions just in relation to the data and I'll ask you one and then I might tackle the second one the first the first one is would it support your studies and analysis if rescue groups better understood how to input data i.e fields diagnosis of disease and if there were a defined process to update the status of the koala in the database which at the moment is maintained by rescue volunteers. So I'll just clarify the the database that we use is maintained by RSPCA Queensland and the import of data is our volunteers so the koalas that come in will have a koala rescue sheet a state government koala rescue sheet filled out and usually the data that's included in there is very very good the fields are included the limitation I think is at our end with quality control of the data so people kind of going back and ensuring that that process is completed and I guess it's just important to to note that we're doing this for some 25 000 animals per year not just for the koalas that come in so there's definitely room for improvement and this is something that we we are seeking to to address but those issues of data quality predominantly rest with us rather than with the rescue and care groups. Yeah thanks just by way of comment to add to that one I think certainly RSPCA is part of the SEQ Wall of Hospital Network and that's includes Karumbin Wall of Hospital, Australia Zoo Wall of Hospital and the Mogul Koala Rehab Centre and as a network we regularly to discuss these types of issues and I think there's certainly a shared interest in improving the quality of data so one of those may in fact be that we provide some additional information or some training to carers in the future with regards to how that data is important and how it should best be filled out to provide the best benefit to the hospitals in this analysis. There's a question here just in relation to the last co-lab there was talk of on koala base as an outline or an online database and research tool that summarizes data collected on koala mortalities and morbidities in south-east Queensland. The question was are all the hospitals using this and where is this data as attendees rule very excited about the possibility of this data coming together so I can probably provide an initial response to say the koala base was developed as a tool by University Queensland so they developed this online database. It's the database which collates the information from the department koala record sheets so as Tim said majority of koalas that are rescued by care groups and admitted into wall of hospitals are accompanied by a data sheet which contains the basic information which is entered into koala base. Koala base has probably had similar problems that Tim has described for the RSPCA database but we're certainly keen to work with UQ and the hospitals to improve the quality of the data that comes in there. I can also say that we do regularly take extracts of the data from koala base and it is available through the Queensland Government's data portal. Again I'll endeavour to provide a link to participants so that they can identify where that data is stored and access to that data. Prior to loading that data into the portal we obviously do some cleansing of the data again to accommodate the types of issues that Tim identified in terms of missing data or incomplete data sets. I'm not sure if you wanted to add anything further on with regards to koala base Tim. I need to say that we currently aren't using it despite lots of discussions about heading in that direction. To me it makes a lot of sense that all of the hospitals in the network contribute to a central database so that that information is available, that it can be analysed and it can help contribute towards koala conservation as well as the work that the hospitals are doing. Probably got time for one last question. Does the RSPCA provide training for their wildlife carers? That's not something that we have done much of in the past but it is something that we're hoping to do more of in the future. Currently working on some educational resources to provide information to private veterinary practices within the metropolitan area and I have certainly provided some training to some private practices within the Brisbane metropolitan area but it's certainly something that we're working on and hope to be able to offer more of into the future. Yeah and I can just reinforce that again that's a conversation we've had as part of the SCQ wildlife hospital network and very keen to ensure that carers and also veterinarians who aren't part of the wildlife hospital network have access to information and resources to assist them in I guess triaging and caring for koalas that come into the care. We're going to have to cut it off then so that we can set up for the next session. So again when you're finished here just jump to the timeline to go back for the next session. Just like to thank Tim again for his presentation this morning. Thank you. Our third presentation this morning will be given by Dr Rosie Booth and it's key messages from Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital koala admissions data from 2004 through to 2001. Rosie has had that 40 years experience as a zoo and wildlife animal veterinarian. She began her wildlife career at Lone Pine koala sanctuary while undertaking postgraduate research on stress in koalas. She spent six years working with the Zoo Logical Board of Victoria on both native and exotic animals. She then returned to Queensland to work at Carumbin Sanctuary and later at David Flay Wildlife Park. She's done considerable field work with koalas, platypus, macropods and eastern bristle birds. She has a commitment to passing on knowledge through workshops, lectures and has more than 90 publications including three chapters in editions of Zoo and Wild Animal Medicine. Her greatest professional interest is in conservation. From 2004 to 2011 she was the coordinator of the captive breeding of threatened species for Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and in Rosie's current role as the director of the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital she has the opportunity to work in the fields of wildlife rehabilitation, research, disaster response and conservation. So I look forward to Rosie's presentation this morning. Thanks Geoff. We want to see if there are other messages to be obtained from the koala data from Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital and the span of years is from 2004 to 2020. So just quickly our mission statement is to rescue, repair, rehabilitate and release native Australian fauna and contribute to research that supports conservation of biodiversity. Under this mission we have provided a second chance now to more than 10,000 koalas. We've done the best that we can to collect as much data from that experience in order to help inform management of koalas from a conservation perspective and I want you all to be aware that it costs up to 10,000 dollars to treat a koala that comes into care for either disease or trauma for an average of six weeks in care so it's a very expensive activity and it's very important to us that it has a positive outcome for the species as well as the individual. 2018 the Department of Environment formed the South East Queensland Wildlife Hospital Network which combines the effectiveness of the RSPCA Wacoal Wildlife Sanctuary Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital and Moggill Koala Rehabilitation Centre. We all have consistent goals more streamlined protocols so that we are all and we share our data with the Department so the emission numbers from 2004 to 2021 which is an 18-year period we have past 10,000 koala admissions so of those animals they have either been displaced from their habitat they've been either hit by cars attacked by mostly domestic dogs or affected by disease so of that 10,000 animals more than 4,000 have been rehabilitated back to the wild so just looking at the cause of admission in greater detail chlamydiosis accounts for 42 percent of Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital's admissions which is horrendous car trauma accounts for 23 percent dog attack 8 percent and other 27 percent most of the other more than half of the other is orphans that are orphaned by disease car or dog attack but our current database can't connect those dots it's really important to understand the impact of humans our options growth for all species so if you can see these are the seasonal variations in the hospital this dotted line here is the trend it will increase in our hospital admission yeah good morning everyone we just sort of had a slight technical difficulty with Rosie's internet connection so this slight break in her presentation provides me probably with an opportunity to talk a little bit further about the sq wildlife hospital network as rosie indicated it commenced in 2017 and since that time the Queensland government has continued to provide funding grants to each of the wildlife hospitals to continue to support their role in providing treatment care and rehabilitation services for sick and injured wildlife with a key focus on on koalas and I think the data that the presenters are showing so we've already had Tim Port as present Rosie was partly way through her presentation and we also will get some information from Michael Pine from Corumban indicates that there's increasing trends in the numbers of animals that are being admitted to care and that includes the numbers of koalas that are being admitted to care so I think that that emphasizes the importance of the work that's being done in all of these four institutions and by the huge army of volunteer carers that are also supporting those networks as I said as a sq wildlife hospital network we're constantly reviewing our policies and procedures and also looking at ways in which we can I guess support better outcomes for the animals including the koalas that come into care and a big focus in the coming 12 months will be around providing information products and training to carers and to veterinarians in relation to dealing with the the triage the treatment and rehabilitation and release of koalas and other wildlife because we recognize that the numbers of animals that are coming in in a number of occasions the carers and the veterinarians are the key components to ensuring a good outcome for those animals so we're certainly very keen to to work on that further somebody's posed a question here which doesn't necessarily relate to Rosie's talk but is there any data on the impact of feral cats and dogs on koala populations and that that data I guess in some ways comes in in some of the mortality related statistics that appear with hospitals but there also some other studies and again I think today we'll hear a presentation from Deirdre de Villiers who works with the Endeavour Veterinary and Ecological Services team and some of the work that they've done has certainly revealed that in some areas wild dogs as well as domestic dogs are important threats to koala populations feral cats there is less data to indicate that they are significant threat but obviously with juvenile and smaller koalas they can certainly provide a risk to animals once they're on the ground and also I guess to some extent within trees the secondary impact of feral cats is obviously through toxoplasmosis that'd be something that I'd I guess rely on advice from from Rosie and the other veterinarians who are presenting today to provide information about the prevalence of those types of diseases in in koalas in particular we don't seem to have I think the team are just working to try and get Rosie back online and hopefully we can recommence her presentation shortly share the screen share the screen one of the things that I'd also remind people who are attending today's session is that we will be providing you with a opportunity to fill out a survey at the end of today's session and we're seeking information in relation to all the previous sessions to help inform the final wrap-up session we will conduct next week so really encourage everyone to participate in that survey just so we can compile that information to assist us in improving the quality of the collab sessions but also in relation to identifying and addressing any issues with the information and research that's been conducted today on koalas it looks as though we've managed to solve the technical problem for Rosie so I'll hand back over to Rosie and she can continue her presentation thanks yeah thanks Jeff I thought you'd be extremely rude talking over the top of me alone um so I'm not sure how far we got with our gender ratio of release but I'll just repeat it briefly so when we we are receiving equal numbers of males and females in admission but we release far more males than females until we identified that this imbalance was happening the reason for that is that the females often have severe reproductive tract disease which renders them unreleasable because they're infertile so there's a higher euthanasia rate for females so if we look at chlamydia it's almost equal numbers of males and females affected by chlamydia in the 4349 koalas that we've seen admitted with chlamydia and obviously that is a very significant disease threat for the species the other significant disease threat that we see is koala retrovirus it is listed as a diagnosis for three percent of our 10,000 admissions but it is probably also involved in another 10 percent of diseases caused by opportunistic pathogens or cancerous diseases near plastic diseases that can be caused by oncogenic viruses caused. So we also believe that koala retrovirus has a significant role in the susceptibility and severity to chlamydia disease so we believe koala retrovirus is another major threatening process for koalas so if we look at our Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital admissions by a local government area our catchment is more the north RSPCAs is more the west and Karambans is more the south of southeast Queensland so you see our largest our most significant catchment is from Morton Bay which is this area here Morton Bay Regional Council and if you see this pie chart of the koalas that are admitted to us from there is the red is the deceased ones and the green is really released so if you look at all of these pies for the local government areas you see there are many more koalas that need euthanising than there are koalas that can be successfully released admitted to our wildlife hospital we look closer into that Morton Bay Regional Council into the suburb of origin again you see the grim reality of more koalas requiring euthanising than koalas that there are to be released from each of the suburbs and you see these top three suburbs here of Brisbane which is the major human development habitat being cleared for additional housing estates so this slide and I might have to play this more than once is each year just the last five years where our data is is extra clean the admissions to Australia's Wildlife Hospital plotted by year on the map of protected koala habitat so this is the core koala habitat mapped in the koala conservation strategy if you watch that play through a few times you will see that the koalas are mainly being admitted to hospitals from the urbanised footprint of Brisbane so not seem to be koalas from the core koala habitat to me this is a reality of us pushing koalas out of habitat that they once saw as core habitat into the west if we look at the the next map this is koalas from Morton Bay Regional Council which are now dead so this is more than a thousand koalas over a nine year period who have not been able to be returned to there to the wild and you can see very clearly that the deaths occur along major roads and in major areas of development of those 1096 koalas that have been lost from Morton Bay Regional Council in the last nine years each year there are less and less being lost which is not in my view a good sign because I think this is an indication of the population declining but it's probably good for them not to be more koalas in that urban footprint because it's not a great place to be a koala so once koalas at the hospital are cleared for release within their prescribed habitat they can sometimes be recruited into monitoring programs and this illustration on the right shows you what urban koalas do in their day so this is a koala called Benson who was released in a nice little bit koala habitat down here to the south of this picture and he was tracked walking up the road taking his time crossing around about and then settling into a food tree to do a bit of eating but this is the world that an urban koala has to live in so we currently get permission to translocate koalas less than six a year when we feel that putting them back into their prescribed habitat is too much of a risk but often we do need to put them back into their prescribed habitat because the you know if the animal is more than six years of age they have a known home range and they are less suited to translocation just quickly the admission hot spots for our hospital morayfield burp and gary and narangba which we saw on that suburb map so the death rate for those suburbs is twice the survival rate so the um the the overall effect on the population of development is a gradual um death by a thousand cuts to the urban koalas and this picture of a koala illustrates what they're faced with is a young koala setting out trying to find the place to live and it finds the closest thing to a koala fork in a in a new house being built um so the other tragedy of koalas is that if we do put them back out into the wild after putting ten thousand dollars worth of effort into them they will often be returned to us within a few a matter of months so um in the data that i've examined for readmissions is just five years of data from 2013 to 2017 100 koalas were readmitted and half of those were killed within a few months of being released so that's half a million dollars worth of treatment and real rehabilitation costs that have been wasted the worst suburbs for a readmission have been petri, tanana and kippering and this um illustration is what koalas are facing in that urban environment so the key messages from this data urban koalas are in serious trouble in my view the legislation that requires release within prescribed habitat of one to five kilometers from rescue location often puts koalas in imminent danger costs approximately ten thousand dollars to rehabilitate one sick or injured koala hundreds of koalas have been killed within months of return to their prescribed habitat it is wasteful of both koalas and resources to keep putting them back in an increasingly developed landscape so how can a koala be expected to safely navigate an urban landscape they have evolved to live in forests and have survived for 20 million years since european settlement it has taken us a mere 200 years to gouge significant holes in their habitat if we can stop what we are doing for koalas then so many other species will benefit from the protected forests that remain we can live with less change development practices to leave behind functional wildlife corridors and use wildlife fencing on major roads and provide wildlife crossings we need solutions to help hold help them hold on habitat protection and connection is what they need most we need to remove that outdated definition of prescribed habitat from the Nature Conservation Act we need to control the diseases and only treat animals with mild disease and we can help prevent diseases vaccination against chlamydia i think um we must not release dispersing young animals back into the urban footprint because it just dooms them to an unimaginable fate and just again the most important thing that koalas need is habitat protection and connection that's me done geoff thanks rosie yeah thanks very much for that rosie and apologies for the the break we had in transmission and for me rudely talking over you i don't think anybody else heard you but i think for you it may have been a bit disruptive i've got one question here which is with the dwindling population why are non-breeding females still euthanized and the person sort of surmises i suppose they still have a role in the colony um so a female koala with reproductive tract disease is you can't release them with their reproductive tract intact because it is severely abnormal often there'll be massive abscesses it's causing um general ill thrift to the animal so they're not just a cheerfully infertile animal they're an animal with a horrible disease of their reproductive tract which is making them feel sick so the surgical procedure to remove a cystic abscess reproductive tract is is not something that anyone would embark on as a oh let's just quickly spay that animal and pop it back in the wild two weeks of um post-surgical pain relief for an animal if it was a surgical candidate but most of them aren't um does that answer that question enough i think so i think it's just a tool for both the welfare issues and also i guess the the ultimate outcome of of intervention of that type um the question or the the statement you made about the nature conservation act and the definition has sort of triggered a question so the the question says thanks rosie current legislation is not helping but where would we release them outside of the urban footprint what is considered safe habitat especially in morton bay region um west of lake koonga the to the west is better i mean you can see from that map of koal protected core koala habitat that the conservation strategy has allowed for um definitely to the west is better so um you know i think that the young dispersing animals would benefit from being released west of lake koonga which is a little bit of a barrier for them to return back into the young urban environment the for the animals that have grown up and developed a territory within the urban footprint that's a much bigger challenge which that's yeah that needs a committee yeah and i can probably answer the information there in that um based on the feedback we've received from the process that we currently have in place we're currently reviewing our approach to translocation as a component of developing a broader wildlife translocation policy and procedures so um there's a paper will be presented to the koala advisory council which rosie is a member of and that's proposing uh some principles and an approach towards developing some uh better and more contemporary translocation policy and that that focuses on the fact that translocation shouldn't just be a last resort technique that's used in that it is a legitimate way of managing wildlife populations but obviously needs to be done in a manner that's um consistent with the best science available in terms of what are the risks and what are the benefits in moving and relocating animals and which provides the best opportunity for a successful outcome for the animals and contributes long term to the conservation of koalas um yeah thank you somebody's posted a question here that says climate change is having a severe impact on the west of morton bay region um and infers that there's some changes to leaf chemistry occurring i wasn't sure if you had any response in relation to that question um climate change is of great concern for western koalas i think more west than west of lake koomba so you know as the temperature increases um the leaf dries out and becomes even less of a good thing to be eating um and of course koalas i don't think survive very well at high temperatures anyway so you know the the threat of climate change is very real and very frightening for the whole species but um leaf chemistry you know the leaf water in particular i think is critical but leaf chemistry beyond water um not my area of expertise but it is a concern the effect of climate change that's great um there was a couple of there's a couple of statements in in the i guess the the question box now and they're more in relation to i guess some of the considerations around translocation and they're talking about um problems with wild dogs in western areas and having the right food trees and questions of overabundance so i think um that probably relates a little bit to what um Karen spoke about earlier in terms of some of the information that's presented in putting forward a case for translocation so did you want to comment on on that in terms of when you're selecting potential sites for release of animals how do you deal with those types of things oops looks like i've scared Rosie off with that question um i might in fact just answer that one myself um certainly again i think as i emphasized uh in responding to questions that came up during Karen's talk on behalf of wild care the process for putting forward an application for release outside prescribed habitat provides a justification of why it isn't suitable to release an animal at the location it was collected or rescued from but also provides a justification with regards to the benefits of releasing that animal at a different site so in considering a release at a different site consideration will be given to the security of that site in terms of its tenure and any future development potential we would also look at the presence of the suitable trees and habitat and in relation to the presence of threats so that would be wild dogs the prevalence or presence of disease in those locations so all those things are part of the consideration that's made before we approve requests for any release outside prescribed habitat for koalas we need to probably finish there just to join in for the next session i thank Rosie for her presentation yeah good morning and welcome back to the fourth presentation of this morning's koala colab conference series our fourth presentation this morning will be by Deirdre de Villiers and it'll be into research conducted by Endeavour Veterinary and Ecological in relation to the movements health and translocation of koalas in south east Queensland Deirdre's worked as a koala recologist for over 24 years in both the public and private sectors she worked for state government for the majority of this time investigating the management requirements of the south east Queensland koala population this work included surveying koala populations to gather baseline data monitoring of population trends undertaking translocation programs and investigating koalas impacted by development this work also included biodiversity planning and assessments and the drafting of legislation guidelines such as the koala conservation plan and management strategy. During this time Deirdre completed a PhD from the University of Queensland investigating the ecology of urban koalas and regional population dynamics. Deirdre is currently working for environmental consultancy Endeavour Veterinary Ecology and has continued this work to better manage and conserve koala populations in Queensland. The project she's been involved in included koala management on the largest koala monitoring project in Queensland the Morton Bay Rail where despite the construction of a rail line the population has recovered and maintains a growth trajectory. She's continued to work in the Redlands and manages the Redlands City Council koala safe neighbourhoods koala tracking program on behalf of the University of the Sunshine Coast. So just welcome Deirdre to provide her presentation. Thanks Jeff. Yep so I'll be talking about the koala translocation program for the Morton Bay Rail project as Jeff mentioned. So firstly some translocation definitions. So the IUCN defines translocation as the human mediated movement of living organisms from one area with release in another. So that can be plants and animals. Within this category there's different conservation there's different translocations so conservation translocations as the name suggests is to conserve populations of plants and animals. So movements to create restore or supplement populations. Management translocations on the other hand are movements of animals to mitigate human derived conflicts or impacts of particularly habitat clearing. Development threats or threats from urban activities such as you know domestic dogs, cars and overabundant or problem wildlife as well. The conservation translocations have been associated with improvements in the conservation status around 40 percent of vertebrate species around the world. So they do work when they are intended to act to conserve populations. From a local point of view as Jeff described earlier explained earlier the Nature Conservation Koala Conservation Plan identifies translocation of koalas as the release of a koala outside of its prescribed natural habitat. And prescribed natural habitat is defined as an area within one kilometer of where the koala was taken. If there is koala habitat within that area or otherwise any habitat within five kilometers from where the koala was taken. Now this differs to a real location where that is the release of the koala within its prescribed habitat but usually the koala is released at a different point to where it was captured. There are issues with translocation and translocation is still quite controversial. Management and mitigation translocations in particular are often unsuccessful for a variety of reasons. Often they're not scientifically robust they're ad hoc and reactive so if land is undergoing development or clearing you might have spotted catches out there clearing trees and grabbing animals and moving them but not koals. There is very limited or no monitoring of animals so there's been many case studies you know around the world that show that animals just get released and reviews done to look at the success of translocation and without that ongoing long-term management it's really hard to tell whether that translocation has been a success or otherwise. There's often negative impacts on the translocated koalas or the receiving population and you know the spread of disease and negative genetic alterations of that receiving population from the animals being translocated into it and of course the the main thing is high mortality rates of translocated animals. They often have failure to adapt to their new habitat and are usually bent on dispersing and movements away from that translocation receive site to their detriment so you know they're encountering dogs cars and you know and you know extra activity on an animal that is very low tolerance for them you know doesn't have a lot of reserves like the koala does. So translocation of koalas they were first koals first translocated in Australia to the islands of Victoria in the late 1800s and this was during the peak in the fur trade and there's various stories about why they were put on put on these islands but the program has been very if not too successful and the translocation of koalas now from some of these islands initially to other islands and then from those islands as they became overabundant back to the mainland. It's caused localised overabundance on some of those mainland sites too and they've had to be translocated again so this is it's a very cautionary tale of translocation and the I guess the long-term unforeseen results of translocation if not managed properly and and yet exactly what what can happen if if you know you put animals where where they shouldn't be I guess they've estimated around 40,000 koalas have been translocated in Victoria from the islands to the mainland since the 1920s so getting to the Morton Bay Rail program so the corridor had been preserved for over 100 years and it was fast tracked in 2012 I think as an election commitment so having this corridor preserved for you know for over 100 years meant there was a lot of koala habitat along the rail corridor and this varied from intact bushland areas to highly degraded vegetation but in some of these areas there was also a very unknown high density koala population within this habitat so the project aimed to minimise the risk of death or injury to koalas during construction works and that was the the main key driver for this program it was in a very it was a very high profile project and we wanted to make sure that we tried to manage these koalas as best we could while the rail project was being constructed so we also thought you know there was going to have to be some translocation of koalas because some of this habitat little fragments weren't conducive to animals staying there and in fact some of it would be cleared completely but we also understood that the translocation should be seen as a last option it's an option of last resort and should only really be considered when the present threat to koalas living in their native habitat is severe or extreme the likelihood of surviving or contributing meaningfully to the local population was low and also that the translocation recipient site must offer a better better prospects for the survival of that animal than leaving them in situ at the donor site otherwise why would you translocate so some of the criteria that we developed to assess these sites for potential translocation sites you can see here in the table so we selected five key sites in the area did some surveys of these sites got a good assessment of the koala density at the sites and also the vegetation the current vegetation status at these sites and went back and did a desktop exercise and looked at these criteria here so the landowner the land tenure the site connectivity the original ecosystem that's one of the key key ones that we we were assessing to look what vegetation was actually on these sites any threatening processes the density of the koalas in relation to the overall carrying capacity and also site access and phone mobile phone coverage which might seem a bit random but for the koala it doesn't matter for us monitoring these animals we had to make sure that it was actually easily accessible and that we had mobile phone coverage to be able to use our tracking technology which reports to the Telstra mobile network so we picked scouts and Griffin as our two sites the landowner scouts association and the Griffin site was actually a transport and main roads offset site so a site selected for as an offset for the project so someone had mentioned earlier about releasing koalas into revenge so we had very good data to show the actual use of koalas in in these revenge areas the land tenure was both conservation for both of these sites it was it was connected the scouts very well connected it was 150 hectare patch in a bigger bigger landscape patch and the Griffin site smaller but still connected with habitat links to the surrounding to the surrounding landscape the regional ecosystem for the scouts was quite a bit different to the Griffin one so scouts had a mixed mixed forest of eucalypts mixed open forest whereas the Griffin site was more teritor corners on alluvial plains and we needed these two distinctly different sites because we wanted to ensure that the koalas that were used to a particular habitat type got put back into an area where where they could find that habitat we looked at the threatening processes in the area so we had collared resident koalas or get to that in a second but we looked at the threats and based on historic data and based on current data that we were collecting what the threats were and whether they could be mitigated so the scouts there was some wild and domestic dog management going on currently with the Morton Bay Council vehicle strike was low it was site was not buffering a major arterial road the scouts were doing they had fire management plans in place so they do control control burns every so often to maintain biodiversity and there was a moderate to high disease prevalence at the site the Griffin for instance there was wild dog management going on there was quail proof fencing along the side of the highway and a moderate disease prevalence so we looked at the density of the koalas as well and determined that the site could support quite a lot of koalas scouts because of the sheer size of the site 25 koalas and the Griffin probably 12 koalas and yeah like I said it had good mobile phone coverage so once we select for selected the site we needed to have a quite a decent look at the koalas and we looked to see whether they were candidates for transocation or not so we looked at the individual home ranges of every koala along the rail alignment and we classified this habitat based on their current and future threat level so we had read which meant that the habitat is very high risk to the koala and it provides little prospect of safely supporting the population of koalas that can contribute significantly to the local population viability we categorized orange habitat as that had considerable impacts but nevertheless contained remnant habitat that was secure enough and provided some degree of functional ecological connection with other habitat in the area could safely safely move to other habitat patches and green was habitat that was considered relatively secure in the medium to long term and had impacts or threats that were less severe or significant or that were currently being effectively managed or mitigated. We also looked at the koalas health reproductive status and considered their age as well so in some of these little remnant patches we had quite old females who were infertile because of clinical disease and those were candidates to be left in place they obviously lived there throughout their life these animals were were quite old and they weren't contributing into the population currently and there was no need to to move them they weren't going to disperse and they were left in situ whereas other ones in that same site were young healthy sub-adult koalas that had very limited prospects of being able to safely disperse out of that area for breeding purposes and so those ones were were translocated and any other factors that we might have considered for these koalas so there were a lot of there was a lot of mortality from wild dogs on the rail alignment or within the rail alignment polygons that we were managing and monitoring koalas and that resulted in quite a few of the orphans that were that were recruited into the project so orphan koalas not having any current home range were ideal candidates to to be moved into some of these translocation areas. You can see not really but there's there's a whole flow chart there on the right of our decision-making process. So monitoring methods we decided that we were going to monitor these koalas for a minimum of three months and for the most part it was almost six months before we started translocating koalas into these areas and this was something that hadn't been done before with other translocation projects and that was the ability to actually monitor resident animals at sites prior to the translocation of animals and these data that we obtained really informed the koala translocation program and provided good baseline data. We determined the threat profile at the sites and mitigated these threats so there's a wild dog up there in the corner of the screen. Wild dogs were a particular issue at the Gryphon site. We had quite a few resident koalas die while we were tracking them prior to the translocation which spurred on the Morton Bay Rail wild dog control officer to actually target specifically target that area. Threats were also disease threats at the Scouts site so that population had a particularly high prevalence of disease. We monitored the translocation translocated koalas for 12 months so that was our monitoring timeframe and that basically encompassed both the non-breeding and breeding season for for those animals and all koalas were then uncollered so some were monitored for more than 12 months but 12 months monitoring was the minimum sent from from the time we dropped the last koala into that translocation site that we monitored those animals. We monitored them quite intensively particularly when we first translocated them they were monitored daily and definitely remotely via our K-Tracker tags our satellite tracking tags and we were also able to then like I said for the Gryphon site figure out what was causing mortality of these resident koalas and actually adaptably managed and go we need to now manage this this factor and any emergent threats that might that might pop up we could manage before we translocated koalas back back to these areas because again we were translocating them so that they would have a better outcome and a better chance of survival. So some of the results we only ended up translocating 28 out of the just over 500 koalas that we actually captured and got a hands-on during the project we obviously thought that this would be much higher number but it turned out that most of the koalas were able to adjust their home ranges to one side of the rail corridor or the other. You can see the picture here just show some home ranges of koalas at the paper mill site using both sides of the rail corridor with the line which is the red line which is the rail corridor by selecting their home ranges. So we translocated 12 koalas to the scouts and 16 koalas to the Gryphon site and the next slide here you can actually see that they've actually the same colors apply to koalas and they've actually moved their home range to either side of the rail line. So the age profile for the koalas at the Gryphon site was three years which is quite low and the oldest koala was five years old and the youngest was was two years old. Now some of the females had pouch young and this was quite confronting because we didn't find any koalas and we searched the whole site and we didn't find any koalas less than five years old and that was really quite an indication that the wild dogs were having a significant impact in reducing the life expectancy of those resident animals. The scouts on the other hand had an age span of two to 13 years so we put quite quite a number of older koalas there and that was again similar to the Morton Bay Rail, the average koala age on the actual rail alignment and that was five years as well. So at the end of the project because we had translocated particularly quite a few of the youngsters in there that would have the would be dispersing and not have the suitable habitat in which to disperse successfully and safely. The site, the age, the average age at the completion of the program was now 4.2 years for both the Gryphon and the and the scout site. Home range establishment so there's often talk that you can't move koalas to you know transicate or relocate koalas within an X number of you know kilometers from their actual home range because they'll try and get back there. We found no evidence of site fidelity at all in that we had no koalas attempting to return to their former home ranges and we'd actually transicated some koalas less than four kilometers from from where they originated. Half the the and these animals established usually established stable home ranges within three months so they they would move a little bit settle in an area and within three months these animals were in stable home ranges and and not moving. Over half of our translocated koalas established home ranges within 200 meters of their point of release and you can see this figure here shows the distance from their release location to the center of their their home range once established and most of them are within the peak is within 200 meters on the Gryphon site. Scouts is a bit different it's quite a large bit of bushland and you can see the figure down on the right here the the blue area is the scouts the scouts property surrounded by a lot of habitat in the landscape as well and they the scouts koalas averaged 1.2 kilometers from their point of release to to their home range and this was significantly biased though because we did have one koala one female koala Midori who decided on the first night to to leave her baby her 10 month old baby in the tree and disperse so she headed east we actually caught her because the baby was in a really large tree so we actually caught Midori and put her back with her baby in the same tree and she took off again so after a few days we actually brought the baby into care as one of the orphans for the project so she progressively headed west and nearly eight kilometers later decided to set up a home range and was quite a stable home range out near Rush Creek in Morton Bay council area so she's significantly skewed the results from the scouts so but for the most part most of the animals set up home ranges within within the 500 meters of their release location which was great which tells us that we did our job properly I guess and picked sites that were suitable for these animals that they actually chose to stay there. Survival mortality that's another key thing I guess to it's well it's the primary primary driver I guess to assess whether your translocation program has been successful or not and overall we had slightly better survival rates at the translocation sites compared to the koalas on the rail line. The resident koalas had a higher mortality than the translocated koalas even though these weren't statistically significant but in fact to say then that you know there was no difference between mortality rates from the resident koalas to those that were translocated. The Gryphon site 50% of the resident koalas died before translocation like I said that was from wild dogs and unfortunately some of these animals four of these six females were of breeding age so they were the Gryphon site was highly fecund and but we had quite a high death rate from from dogs early on and scouts disease was the primary cause of mortality so life fecundity at the scout site because of the the high disease and seven of these females were euthanized because of reproductive tract disease so like Rosie said you know a lot of the females when they do get reproductive tract disease you know succumb to it and they and they don't get released back into the wild. This is the some of the early results from a a student Brooklyn who did her honest project using some of the Morton Bay rail data and she was looking particularly at the movements of translocated koalas and it goes to show that if there were any impacts on the resident koalas so again it's another key thing for translocation you're putting animals back into typically an unknown area so we had in this time we knew where the koalas were and what the resident animals were doing but typically animals go back into an area and you have no idea of of what impacts they have on the local koalas in that area. So she compared movements looked at the successive distance between each location so in figure A you can see that successive distance is the the movements of the animal you know daily between between locations and that distance whereas displacement distance is the distance between each location from their first from their release location. So when we're comparing the movement patterns of these translocated koalas so there was no statistical difference in the successive distance traveled by translocated koalas however translocated male and female koalas did have a significantly increase their displacement distance in both the breeding and the non-breeding season. So this means that the translocated koalas had normal amounts of movement so they're not moving great distances over the landscape trying to find alternative habitat they're actually doing normal movements based on comparisons between the the control Morton Bay Rail koalas so they're moving the usual distance overnight they did you would expect a koala to move but they were moving progressively away from their release location so that showed in the in the previous graph that they were setting up home rangers at a bit of a distance from from where they were released. In resident koalas there was no significant influence on the successive distance traveled but resident males did show a significant increase in the displacement distance following translocation. So again we're interpreting this as that the koalas the male koalas in particular are moving from their home range they're moving a greater distance at night I guess to um to suss out the competition and the new kid on the block and um yeah paying them a visit potentially. So conclusions um so translocation should always be seen as a last resort management tool um let you know we try and make sure that the koalas you know development is tailored to koalas it's it's based on you know koala sensitive design practices so koalas can actually stay in the local area but um sometimes obviously this isn't possible um so translocation will then be used to provide a better outcome or survival for the animal then let nature take its course approach so rather than leaving it there in situ um moving it might be a better option to ensure its its health and well-being and also translocation mitigates threats to animals if they were left to disperse to alternative habitat so rather than leave the animal there and if they need to disperse or if they're being pushed out of of habitat that's been cleared let's try and assist their dispersal and put them in an area where they potentially were heading um and that is safer for them long term. Translocation always remains controversial due to historical programs that were poorly designed with potentially high mortality rates. The impact on resident animals was largely unknown and there's always the ongoing perception that koalas die trying to find other habitat or returning to their previous home range and we've just shown that with careful planning and management that you can actually achieve good outcomes for for translocated koalas. Careful site selection is required to ensure that there is a similar diet or food tree species preference and the environmental conditions are consistent so we were looking in the Morton Bay um local government area and in particularly closest closest to the rail rail corridor that we could find to to release these animals um and potentially you know and also making sure the capacity to receive additional koalas um at at the site is is factored in as well because you don't want to put koalas back at a site that's at capacity and have them then disperse so um potentially the the scout site you know some koalas might have encountered other koalas um as they were being released and they've you know moved off within you know within the 200 to 500 meters but established a home range in the area but in this day and age really um I had done surveys at the site the scout site historically and know that the density was much higher back in you know 20 years ago than what it is when we decided to use that as a translocation site so based on that historic data we knew that that site could potentially support high numbers of koalas being translocated and active management of threats before and after translocation is key to the success so we need to manage disease we don't want to put animals back into areas where there's a highly high chance of them becoming diseased wild dog control is is key as well um we had at the scouts we knew that there were wild dogs and domestic dogs from the local residents running through through the site but um in reality we had very little um wild dog attacks at that site there were two two koalas that were translocated they got attacked within a week of each other and then there was nothing else and they were attacked in the same area too so um we had very little wild dog attacks at the scout site considering them the big large landscape that they were that they were ranging in and of course road mitigation and fencing so to ensure that you know the koalas wouldn't if they do disperse they're not encountering encountering the roads so this active management is it is crucial to be able to monitor these animals and um jump on any emergent issues and know that that you know you're on top of it and and not left not leave the koalas and go oh what's happened to all the what's happened to all the koalas and so to ensure that you can actually manage them effectively then and there um and and that's it just some acknowledgments department of transport and main roads that um funded the project and development ecology staff and contractors who um worked hard to um to manage all these koalas 500 was was quite a bit to um to deal with and the Morton Bay koala rescue groups who um happened to rescue some of these koalas when they um got up to um got up to no good the the hospital network and um of course the koalas themselves they're the great little study animals and yep some of them are still out there um doing very well um from from the project so um we're some of the some of the Morton Bay koala volunteers are actually keeping an eye on on some of these areas and and encounter these koalas so we know that they're they're doing well okay thank you oh actually um any any further information on the the rolling project you can follow that link there at the bottom of the screen right thanks very much to you dry I think um everyone on the gory that it's a really detailed study and from the department's perspective it provides really important data as we start to review our transocation policies and and look at the way in which we use transocation as a as a conservation tool not just as a um last resort intervention um on every occasion so I think the information provided was great so um there's one time for one question that question is um the carrying capacity for the Morton Bay Morton Bay rail line will no doubt be reached at some time in in the near future um the areas surrounded by high density residential suburbs um the vaccines ensure that all koalas have bred in an increasing population um will will have an impact on remaining koala habitat um how is that being addressed or how might that be addressed I guess okay yeah so um we have been monitoring koalas at the very western end of of that that corridor so still at the the mill site which is undergoing development for Morton Bay Regional Council where the uni is um is currently situated and yeah we have obviously the koalas are getting quite abundant in that area and not just that area but all throughout the the rail alignment because it is still some of the last intact bits of bushland in in the region um and so we we had done surveys in the past and done recounts of some of these areas and the population is still increasing so based on our previous management work they've still been breeding breeding of a storm and um so yes we are currently discussing I guess means of trying to reduce those populations which would potentially involve transactions of some of these animals to other areas around Morton Bay yeah I can certainly confirm that department's been involved in those conversations with both um Eve and with Morton Bay Regional Council um and it's an it's an enviable position to be in in terms of having koala populations that are actually expanding it um to the point where we feel we need to move animals to um to other locations so certainly some of that conversation is also looking at some questions that previous speakers were asked about in terms of looking at offset sites and rehabilitation sites in terms of the potential for those to um support koalas being translocated from other sites so yeah I was going to mention that one of those the the Griffin site um did have koala um a lot of I think about 20 000 trees planted as as an offset site for the rail link project and we had koalas using those trees in as little as um you know two years so we're using those trees as habitat that's great um we're going to have to finish it there the session's come to a close thanks very much for your presentation Deidre and thanks to all the other speakers today