Koala Field Project: Tracking Koalas
Posted at 10:16 am November 21, 2006 by Bill Ellis
I have just returned from another trip to St. Bees Island, Australia, the home of the koala population that is the focus of our field research on the ecology of this enigmatic species. (See Bill's previous blog, Koalas by Day, Koalas by Night.) This was the first trip where we had the full CRES koala team on board, so we were hopeful that we could uncover some interesting information about koala behaviour while combining our skills in the field for the first time.
My main goal was to trial some new technology we have had developed in the area of koala radio tracking. We went to St. Bees with two new GPS radio-tracking collars; these use the Global Positioning System to accurately identify the koala's location and then store the location onboard, as a lat/long record. With the new lightweight (150 grams or 5.2 ounces) dual mode collars (VHF tracking beacon and GPS logger) we think we have a good chance of collecting some key information on what koalas do while we are not watching them!
We tracked the group of koalas that live near the research base and amongst them found two female koalas without radio collars. One, Xena, had a small female back young and we named it Jen, so now we have two Jens in our project (Jen Tobey is a CRES research fellow)! Baby Jen was about 800 grams (28 ounces) and still too young to be independent from mum; her progress over the coming field trips will be of great interest to us. Xena received a GPS collar because we are really interested to see how far she ranges and test the accuracy of the collars to see if they can deliver the results we want. The other uncollared female, Echo, also received a GPS collar as she spends quite a lot of time in the rain forest and we are interested to see how the technology works under the denser canopy as well as the open woodlands occupied by many other koalas, such as Xena.
Dr. Bill Ellis is a Conservation Research Postdoctoral Fellow for CRES.
Here's more information about Bill's koala project.
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November 22nd, 2006 at 11:46 am
I've been following your research and learning so much from you, Bill. Thanks for keeping us up to date. I hope the GPS collars prove their worth and give you more of the data you are seeking. Having grown up among the " dinosaurs" — dial phones, propeller planes, AM-only radio, black and white movies — I am constantly astounded by the way technology has changed us all. And it's great to see it at work helping to conserve threatened and endangered species. Good luck with this GPS project!
December 18th, 2006 at 11:46 am
Bill, I love the picture of you and the joey. Did you have any luck finding more intact " family" units?