Incorporating Habitat Mapping into Practical Koala Conservation on Private Lands

Abstract

Identifying and conserving faunal habitat on private lands has been conducted largely on a site‐by‐site basis as development proposals arise. We sought to map koala habitat at a scale suitable for use by a local planning authority so that habitat remnants could be protected and managed while remaining in private ownership. At this scale, the level of detail and accuracy needed by local planners required a new approach to mapping koala habitat. Two independent techniques, community and field surveys, were employed. We mailed a survey to every household in Coffs Harbour shire. Respondents told of 3309 koala sightings. We conducted a field survey, a plot‐based scat ( fecal pellet) search, to determine which vegetation types and tree species were preferred by koalas. We surveyed 119 sites, which contained 42 different vegetation types. Of these, 37 (31%) had been used by koalas. The outcomes of the community and field surveys were combined to produce a distribution map of koala habitat. The most striking outcome has been the use of our results by the local government authority, Coffs Harbour City Council: planners have incorporated the koala habitat map into their local environmental plan. Our procedure offers a rigorous, repeatable, and publicly accessible method for identifying and mapping important habitat for the purposes of land‐use planning, an essential procedure for conserving habitat outside the reserve system.

Koala conservation and habitat requirements in a timber production forest in north-east New South Wales

“…Identification and mapping the distribution of preferred food trees and tree associations has been a common approach to mapping koala habitat for implementation of regional koala conservation management plans (Lunney et al 2000). In this study, koala scats were found more often than expected (on the basis of tree species abundance) beneath tallowwood and grey gum.…”

Low-density koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) populations in the mulgalands of south-west Queensland. IV. Abundance and conservation status

“…Hasegawa 1995;Munks et al 1996;Pahl 1996;Lunney et al 2000;Phillips et al 2000). Barnes (1996) noted that for elephants, direct count methods have been validated and fine-tuned, whereas dung counts are still evolving.…”

Experimental Evaluation of Koala Scat Persistence and Detectability with Implications for Pellet-Based Fauna Census

“…This suggests that strong biases could be introduced when landscapes with surface water present (or probably even very moist substrates) are being surveyed. Koalas actually tend to favor wet habitats [21] and so for this species, there is the paradoxical likelihood that there will be a low density of detectable scats present in areas supporting a relatively high density of koalas. Despite this, few studies have attempted to control for decay bias in koala scat surveys and even these studies have tried to account for scat decay by excluding scats older than a certain threshold [20,22,64].…”

“…and are difficult to survey directly because of their cryptic, nocturnal habits and their low population density. Scat surveys have thus been widely used in studies of koala distribution [18,19], habitat use [20,21], and abundance [22], as well as frequently forming the basis for management [23]. One source of inaccuracy reported in other species is variability of scat decay linked with diet variability [24]; this should be negligible for koalas which are folivores with a relatively homogeneous diet all year round, relying mainly on a few genera in the Family Myrtaceae, predominantly Eucalyptus, Corymbia, Melaleuca and Lophostemon [25,26].…”

“…Rhodes et al [28] focused on seasonal and geographical differences in climate, which they found significantly influenced the rate of scat decay but also emphasized that most of the observed variation in scat decay rates remained unexplained and highlighted the need for more research. Robust scat survey methodology is particularly critical because land use planning and management decisions often rely on such surveys (e.g., [21,29]). These decisions affect localized extinction risk [30] and the fate of a species is often determined by the sum of these local extinctions [31].…”