Latest news with #koalas
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Calls for action as road safety project remains incomplete after five years
After Australia approved new housing developments in the middle of one of the nation's most important koala habitats, the amount of traffic began to increase. In 2020, the NSW government was told new road crossings were needed to protect them along Appin Road in Sydney's southwest, but five years on, none have been completed. Since then, koalas have been listed as endangered, and their remaining habitat has been fragmented by development and bushfire. A NSW Parliamentary inquiry has warned the iconic marsupials are on track to be extinct across the state in just 25 years, with habitat destruction a key driver of their demise. But while construction of the underpasses has been slow, there's one area where there has been rapid progress, and that's the construction of houses around the Campbelltown area, and as a result, there are more cars, and koalas are dying at an alarming rate. Research by ecologists at Biolink indicates: Since 2019, vehicle strikes have impacted up to 62 per cent of Campbelltown's koala population. Vehicle strikes of koalas across southwest Sydney rose by 56 per cent from 2023 to 2024. This year, over 20 koalas have already been killed in southwest Sydney. Why haven't developers completed any underpasses? The koalas in southwest Sydney are considered the most important in NSW, because they are the only population free of chlamydia, an infectious disease that causes sterility and death. One of the biggest projects on Appin Road, also referred to as the "killing corridor", is the controversial 1,700-home Fig Tree Hill development. It was originally conceived by developer Lendlease, and its impact on koalas attracted fierce criticism and resulted in Australian Ethical Super divesting from the company. Lendlease promised to build two underpasses along the road at the former homesteads of Beulah and Glen Lorne as part of a voluntary planning agreement. It forecast the latter would be complete by mid-2025. Since then, the project has been sold to developer Stockland, but its records indicate it has only managed to construct 50 per cent of the Glen Lorne underpass. 'Stockland is committed to delivering on the vision for the Figtree Hill community and good progress continues to be made on the Glen Lorne underpass,' a Stockland spokesperson told Yahoo News. It appears progress on the underpass is being held up due to negotiations with LendLease, which still owns the land on the other side of the road, as Stockland needs to get access to this property to complete the project. A Lendlease spokesperson confirmed, 'Discussions are underway to facilitate access to the Glen Lorne underpass.' A third underpass at Ousedale Creek is currently being planned, according to Transport for NSW, but construction has not begun. Report finds koalas are being failed The Sydney Basin Koala Network, which was founded by the Total Environment Centre, and received three years of funding from WIRES, has issued its 2025 progress report. It warns the situation for koalas is 'increasingly dire' in Campbelltown, and calls on the Minns Labor Government to acknowledge its efforts to protect them are 'failing'. Sydney Basin Koala Network spokesperson Stephanie Carrick told Yahoo News koala protections are moving slowly, but development is being fast-tracked. 'It should be the opposite. Koala protections need to come first if they're serious about protecting koalas,' she said. Most of the farmland on the west side of Appin Road is slated for housing developments, and this will fragment a corridor that koalas have used for thousands of years to travel between the Nepean and Georges Rivers. Although the underpasses have not been completed, bushland along the edge of Appin Road has been bulldozed, and fencing has been erected to stop koalas crossing. But because of their need to continue to cross between the rivers, the Sydney Basin Koala Network has found they're travelling into new areas they haven't been seen in years, and are being killed there instead. Responding to questions from Yahoo News about the issue, Transport for NSW said its fencing is reducing the risk of koala strikes. 'Some of the current fencing along Appin Road is temporary while the developer undertakes this significant upgrade along Appin Road,' it said. 'A permanent fence connecting from Noorumba Reserve through to Ousedale Creek will create a continuous safety barrier. The temporary fencing reduces overall risk of koala strikes while works are underway.' Signage has been installed along Appin Road to warn motorists about koalas, but the government's own research has raised doubts about its effectiveness. What happens when a koala is struck by a vehicle? Carrick said most koalas are killed instantly when they're struck by vehicles. But often no one stops to check if they've survived, and evidence has been collected showing animals have been hit multiple times. Anger in Aussie tourist region after council kangaroo shooting ban rejected Warning 'nowhere is safe' as Australia's 500km toxic problem spreads Irreplaceable 6.5-hectare forest protected for future generations 'When you think about a small koala being hit on an 80km/h road, you're not going to have much of the animal left. We're seeing horrific injuries where they're squashed or torn apart,' she said. 'It is terrible that nothing has happened to protect them.' Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
New study finds that koalas spend 10 minutes a day in this deadly spot
Even though koalas are only on the ground for 10 minutes a day, experts have found that those few minutes are by far the most deadly. A new study has revealed that two thirds of the 10 recorded koalas die during the brief period they spend on the ground. Although the recorded koalas only spent about 10 minutes on the ground each day, two-thirds of them died in that tiny amount of time—usually from vehicle collisions or dog attacks. The research was led by the University of Queensland PhD student, Gabriella Sparkes, who explained, 'Koalas are mostly tree-dwelling, but due to extensive land clearing, they're increasingly forced to travel on the ground, which puts them at a serious risk of injury and death.' The koalas–an endangered species in Australia–were fitted with GPS collars to monitor their movements, and it was revealed that the marsupials spent just 1% of their daily life on the ground–that's alongside the 20 hours usually reserved for sleep. Researchers behind the study are now pushing for conservation efforts to aim primarily at reducing the amount of time that koalas need to spend on the ground. Sparkes added, 'If we can identify the kinds of trees or habitat conditions that encourage koalas to remain in trees for longer, we may be able to design or manage landscapes in ways that reduce the need for ground travel.' Even though koalas are only on the ground for about 10 minutes a day, experts have found that those few minutes are by far the most deadly. A new study has revealed that two-thirds of koalas died during the brief period they spend on the ground, although the ten recorded koalas only spent about 10 minutes on the ground each day, two-thirds of them died from vehicle collisions or dog attacks. The research was led by the University of Queensland. And PhD student Gabriella Sparks, who explained koalas are mostly tree-dwelling, but due to extensive land clearing, they're increasingly forced to travel on the ground, which puts them at a serious risk of injury and death. The koalas, an endangered species in Australia, were fitted with GPS collars to monitor their movements, and it was revealed that the marsupials spent just one percent of their daily life on the ground, that's along the 20 hours usually reserved for sleep. Researchers behind the study are now pushing for conservation efforts to aim primarily at reducing the amount of time that koalas need to spend on the ground. Sparks added, if we can identify the kinds of trees or habitat conditions that encourage koalas to remain in trees for longer, we may be able to design or manage landscapes in ways that reduce the need for ground travel.
The Guardian
13-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Indigenous midwife suffers racial slur; alarm at koala deaths in conservation project; Sinner wins Wimbledon final
Good morning. We lead today with revelations an Indigenous midwife was referred to by a racist slur on a staff whiteboard at one of Sydney's largest public hospitals – contributing to her quitting in frustration. Meanwhile, there are calls for answers after a failed project aiming to re-establish a koala population in an area of south-eastern New South Wales resulted in more than half of the koalas involved dying. In international news, a former Israeli PM says plans for a 'humanitarian city' in southern Gaza would amount to a concentration camp for Palestinians. And Jannik Sinner has outclassed Carlos Alcaraz to take the Wimbledon men's title. Exclusive | An attempt by the NSW government to reintroduce koalas to a forest in the state's far south has failed after more than half of the moved animals died – something not made public by officials. 'I was fighting a battle' | A former midwife at Sydney's RPA hospital who was referred to by a racist slur on a staff whiteboard says the health system needs to do more to create culturally safe workspaces. 'Gross over-reach' | The Labor Friends of Palestine group is urging the government to reject key recommendations from the federal antisemitism envoy, including the adoption of a contested definition of antisemitism. Queensland politics | The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, has announced a 'landmark inquiry' into allegations of violence and cultural issues within the state branch of the CFMEU. Geopolitics | Australia will refuse any US request to join a 'hypothetical' conflict with China over Taiwan, the government says, amid reports the US is seeking such promises in Aukus talks. Air India crash | Families of the Air India crash's victims are calling for more transparency from investigators after a 'vague' initial report into the accident deepened the mystery of what happened. Gaza crisis | Israel's 'humanitarian city' would be a concentration camp for Palestinians, a former Israeli prime minister said; children waiting to collect water are among Palestinians killed in another bloody weekend in Gaza, Palestinian health officials have said. Russia-Ukraine war | Vladimir Putin has no apparent desire for peace – and a dose of realism for western leaders would allow Kyiv to focus on halting Russia's advance, Dan Sabbagh writes. Trump attack | A new US Senate committee report on the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at an election rally in Pennsylvania last year has called the event a 'cascade of preventable failures'. South Australia's algae bloom crisis South Australia's coastline is battling a toxic algal bloom. Rising sea temperatures and a lack of action about the unfolding catastrophe have left experts increasingly concerned about the health of the state's marine ecosystems. Tory Shepherd speaks with Nour Haydar about why experts are saying this disaster is 'climate change happening'. Each one of us feels pain. We all stub our toes, burn our fingers, knock our knees and worse. But the problem with living in just one mind and body is that we can never know whether our six out of 10 on the pain scale is the same as the patient in the chair next to us. Celina Ribeiro takes us into a journey into the fascinating science of pain – and explains why when it comes to suffering, perspective is everything. Finalists for 2025 Beaker Street science photography prize will be exhibited at Hobart's Tasmanian museum and art gallery from 6 to 31 August as part of the Beaker Street festival – and includes the first-ever image of a wild eastern quoll glowing under UV light (above), taken by Benjamin Alldridge. Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Tennis | Jannik Sinner (above) roars back to outclass Carlos Alcaraz in four sets to take his first Wimbledon men's title; a coaching reset helped Iga Świątek turn her ban nightmare into a Wimbledon dream. AFL | Fremantle are easy targets but deserve more respect for hitting back, Jonathan Horn writes; AFL bans West Coast player Jack Graham for four matches over homophobic slur. Cricket | Australian bowlers are hunting for early wickets against the West Indies on day two of their third Test in Kingston, Jamaica; England look to the crowd to spur them on to a final-day Test win against India. Football | Paris Saint-Germain are taking on Chelsea in the final of the Fifa Club World Cup in New Jersey; Liverpool players and fans remember Diogo Jota in first game since forward's death. Cycling | Belgian rider Tim Merlier claims stage nine of the Tour de France, as Mathieu van der Poel falls just short. In documents accidentally shared with ABC News, Treasury officials have told the Labor government that its budget cannot be fixed without raising taxes. Advocates are warning that some of Victoria's most vulnerable are increasingly lingering under state guardianship because of NDIS failings, the Age reports. Diplomacy | Anthony Albanese is in China for an official visit. Victoria | The trial of Lachlan Young, accused of Hannah McGuire's murder, continues in Ballarat. Defence force | Multinational military exercise Talisman Sabre is under way at Shoalwater Bay along the Queensland coast. NSW | Hearings are being held in the Icac public inquiry into Transport for NSW employees. Enjoying the Morning Mail? Then you'll love our Afternoon Update newsletter. Sign up here to finish your day with a three-minute snapshot of the day's main news, and complete your daily news roundup. And follow the latest in US politics by signing up for This Week in Trumpland. And finally, here are the Guardian's crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword If you have a story tip or technical issue viewing this newsletter, please reply to this email. If you are a Guardian supporter and need assistance with regards to contributions and/or digital subscriptions, please email
The Guardian
13-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
More than half of koalas relocated to NSW forest died in failed government attempt at reintroduction
An attempt by the New South Wales government to reintroduce koalas to a forest in the state's far south has failed after more than half of the moved animals died, including two with signs of septicaemia, and the remaining marsupials were taken into care. The translocation and deaths of seven out of 13 koalas in April were not made public by the government, prompting questions about whether something went wrong with the project and calls from the NSW Greens for a review. The project was aiming to re-establish a koala population in an area of south-eastern NSW where the species is locally extinct. Translocation is part of NSW's koala strategy to try to improve the trajectory of the endangered species, at risk of extinction in the state. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email A spokesperson for the NSW environment department told Guardian Australia 13 koalas were selected for translocation in April and moved from 'a high-density population' in the Upper Nepean state conservation area west of Wollongong to the South East Forest national park near Bega. They said three koalas died within a two-day period in early April, which led the department's project team to put the remaining 10 animals into a wildlife hospital. Four more koalas died. They said necropsy results from two of the first three koalas that died revealed chronic and acute infections of the lungs and liver, suggesting septicaemia – a bloodstream infection – 'as the likely cause of death'. The spokesperson said the remaining six koalas were healthy and returned to their original habitat in the Upper Nepean. They said the reintroduction project was immediately put on hold for research to try to establish what caused the deaths. The team was 'investigating a potential link between septicaemia in koalas and adverse weather conditions, as the mortalities occurred four to five days after a significant rainfall event,' they said. 'We believe prolonged wet weather can pose serious health risks to koalas, disrupting feeding behaviour, inhibiting thermoregulation, and weakening the immune system.' They said the project team, in collaboration with researchers and veterinarians, would continue investigating 'the potential impact of heavy rainfall, as well as factors such as diet, nutrition, and gut microbiome on the success of future translocations'. The state Greens environment spokesperson, Sue Higginson, said the incident was 'deeply distressing' and sent 'a very cynical message that the government is focused on [a] high risk and failed koala program effort' while habitat destruction for development and logging continued. 'This koala translocation experiment has been a catastrophic failure and raises serious questions about how it happened,' she said. 'The control settings around this translocation experiment must now be brought into question and reviewed because it would appear they were flawed. 'It is deeply concerning that the government allowed this program in the circumstances and given the outcomes, it's clear they shouldn't have.' Carolyn Hogg, a professor of biodiversity and conservation at the University of Sydney, said wildlife translocation could be complex and the deaths were 'a really unfortunate event'. 'We do know unexpected weather events may cause pathogens to unexpectedly appear,' she said. Hogg said for NSW koala populations under pressure from habitat fragmentation and isolation, translocation projects were a management tool that could improve gene flow and genetic diversity. Valentina Mella is a senior lecturer in animal behaviour and conservation at the University of Sydney. Speaking generally, she said there were important scientific questions that should be considered before translocating wildlife into a new area. 'When you move an animal into a habitat that is considered suitable for that species but that species is not actually present, you have to ask yourself why,' she said. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'You have to do a really thorough investigation of why the animal is absent.' In the case of koalas, she said one consideration should be if suitable food was available because they were specialist folivores – leaf eaters – that only ate particular types of leaves. The department said all of the animals underwent a veterinary assessment and were found to be healthy and chlamydia negative before the translocation. They said the project was developed in consultation with stakeholders, including traditional owners, researchers, conservation groups, landholders and government agencies. They said the koalas were closely monitored after their release using satellite and VHF (very high frequency) collars, 'in accordance with strict animal ethics and scientific licensing requirements'. 'The koalas were observed regularly changing trees, foraging, and producing scat of normal quality. All of these are healthy behaviours we would hope to see post translocation,' they said. They said two other recent translocation projects had taken place in the state. The first relocated koalas from the Upper Nepean State Conservation Area to a predator-free fenced area in Yiraaldiya National Park in western Sydney. All the koalas were alive and healthy, the department said. A second had commenced in the Northern Rivers region, where there is competition for limited food trees. To try to improve the welfare of koalas in the area, nine animals were translocated to nearby Bungawalbin National Park. The department said three of the koalas had since died, with likely causes being tree fall or predation. The remaining koalas appeared healthy. 'There are many examples of successful koala translocations in Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Narrandera in NSW,' they said. 'Koala translocations are not a substitute for protecting koala habitat where healthy populations currently exist; both conservation actions have their role.' The NSW environment minister Penny Sharpe was unavailable for comment. Do you know more? Email
ABC News
09-07-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Koalas spend just 10 minutes a day risking their lives on the ground, tracking suggests
Koalas spend 20 hours a day sleeping, and most of the rest eating. That means they can only squeeze 10 minutes in each day to move between trees, according to a new study. Unfortunately, this time on the ground is the riskiest part of their day, said Gabriella Sparkes, a PhD student at the University of Queensland, who led the study. Roughly two-thirds of koala deaths occur when they're on the ground — mostly from dog attacks and vehicle collisions. "It's this disproportionate amount of death on the ground when we're talking about an animal that should be spending most of its time in the trees," Ms Sparkes said. She presented the study today at the 2025 Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Belgium. Ms Sparkes and her team studied koalas around Pittsworth in Queensland, south-west of Toowoomba. "It's a really agriculturally fragmented landscape," she said. "You end up with tiny woodland patches, and then lots of strip vegetation along roads and along farms." To understand how koalas spend their time, the researchers captured and fitted 10 animals with collars sporting GPS trackers and accelerometers. Accelerometers, which measure movement and speed, are also used in pedometers and phones to track steps. Unlike GPS trackers, they don't need satellite connections to log data, which is useful when you're studying something that loiters under trees. This allowed the team to get much more granular data on koala movement than previous studies have allowed. "Going through a koala's accelerometer trace, we could identify all the climb-downs and the climb-ups, and that really helped us pinpoint these ground visits," Ms Sparkes said. The koalas had their steps tracked for an average of eight days each before the team removed their collars — although they were unable to get one back. "The koala's out there somewhere," Ms Sparkes said. The researchers found koalas visited the ground an average of just two or three times a day. These visits totalled less than 1 per cent of the koala's day. One koala embarked on a 45-minute odyssey across a field one night, but that was an exception. Generally, the koalas kept their time on the ground very brief — roughly 4.5 minutes on average, adding up to about 10 minutes a day. Ms Sparkes said koalas in different areas of the research site moved differently in her study, with those living in strips along roadsides and fields spending more time on the ground. "Koalas in the wooded areas went to the ground more frequently in a night, but spent less time there," she said. This means, unsurprisingly, that cleared areas and roadsides are more dangerous locations for koalas to live. Karen Marsh, an ecologist at the Australian National University who wasn't involved in the study, said koalas in different areas would potentially spend different amounts of time on the ground. "For example, feed trees might be more dispersed in open habitat such as paddocks or fragmented landscapes compared to forested areas," Dr Marsh said. Time of year and conditions might also have an influence. "Males might also spend more time on the ground in the breeding season when they are trying to locate females," Dr Marsh said. Mathew Crowther, an ecologist at the University of Sydney who also wasn't involved in the research, said he was surprised to see how little time koalas in this study spent on the ground. "Koalas have to move a lot because of their quite specialised diets," Professor Crowther said. Koalas need to ensure they're getting enough nutrients to justify digesting the toxins in eucalyptus leaves. "You've got to make sure when you're conserving habitat that you have enough trees for them to get to, and also enough feed trees as well," Professor Crowther said. He said that this study, which was more detailed than previous movement research, could help to inform habitat restoration efforts. Landscapes should be arranged so koalas don't have to spend much time on the ground, Professor Crowther said. "Because obviously they don't want to," he said. Dr Marsh agreed, saying that understanding koalas' ground movements could help to manage threats against them. "For example, you may be able to strategically incorporate artificial habitat structures, such as poles, or replantings at key danger points to help them to get off the ground," she said.
