Well, koalas haven’t yet disappeared, but they are in trouble in Australia and they are hard to find in the wild. Can you spot the one in the tree?

We’re off to St. Bees Island as part of the San Diego Zoo’s koala conservation program. Bill Ellis has explained some of our work in the field (see Bill’s most recent blog, Koalas by Day, Koalas by Night) and Jen Tobey has explained some of our work at the Zoo (see Jen’s most recent blog, Male Koalas Smell Like Goats?! The Zoo is actively involved in koala preservation and our program combines work at the Zoo with work in the wild.

In November, we are hosting the Zoo’s director of collections, Bob Wiese, the Zoo’s director, Richard Farrar, the curator of mammals, Carmi Penny, and the animal care supervisor and koala program manager, Chris Hamlin-Andrus. Jen and Chris have explained the koala dating and mating plans in captivity (see “Playing Matchmaker for Koalas,” ZOONOOZ May 2006), while Bill and I have worked in the field together. This time Jen will join us to study koala communication and ranging behavior and we will share our knowledge and field experience with people who work at the Zoo. This type of collaboration epitomizes the type of leadership role that the Zoological Society of San Diego plays in wildlife conservation. Our collaboration enables us to combine field and captive studies aimed at preserving animals in the wild and helps to sustain the captive population.

Our plans are to see how the koalas respond to the bellows that we recorded at the Zoo (see Jen’s blog, Motorcycles and Koalas). We are also going to follow the koala ranging patterns to see why they use specific trees and what determines their movement patterns. As our expedition moves along, we’ll keep you posted. The San Diego Zoo has the largest breeding population of koalas outside of Australia and we have an obligation to the animals and to future generations to make sure that they do not disappear from the planet.

Fred Bercovitch is the division head/senior scientist of Behavioral Biology/CRES.

Read more about the koala studies done by CRES:
Function of Olfactory Signals in Koala Reproduction
Acoustic Communication in Koalas
Use of GPS Collars to Monitor Habitat Use in Australian Koalas
Foraging Strategies in Koalas
Reproductive and Population Ecology of Koalas

Posted in Default, Conservation, Field Studies, CRES (Conservation and Research for Endangered Species), General | Link to this post

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