By Wiriya Sati, ABC News
The first joeys have emerged from their mothers' pouches in the world's first wild koala breeding program. Photo: Brooke Maxwell, KCA
Among the tall trees of a New South Wales mid-north coast forest, conservationists are playing matchmaker in Australia's first wild koala breeding programme.
Koala Conservation Australia (KCA) is helping to reverse declining koala populations by breeding genetically diverse, healthy joeys for release into the wild.
All six female koalas involved in the programme have given birth to joeys in their first breeding season.
The 100 percent success rate has thrilled KCA breeding manager Kate Farquharson.
"It's extremely exciting to see them start sticking their little fingers and toes and their head out of the pouch," Dr Farquharson said.
"Our joeys are now at the age where they're starting to grow up and become more independent themselves."
She said a lot of the action was seen only on night vision cameras or through binoculars as they monitored the koalas in the trees.
"We want to be as hands-off as possible, but it's still very exciting," Dr Farquharson said.
Kate Farquharson takes the koala DNA for sequencing then analyses the results to match them for breeding. ( Photo: ABC Mid North Coast / Emma Siossian
Boosting koala populations in the wild
In New South Wales, koalas are endangered and predicted to become extinct by 2050 without drastic action, according to the 2020 Legislative Council Parliamentary inquiry.
"A conservation breeding programme is a very drastic action," Dr Farquharson said.
But it's done alongside their other efforts in rehabilitating wild koalas and restoring and protecting habitat.
"This is pretty essential to be able to boost the populations in the wild that aren't doing so well," Farquharson said.
The programme differs from breeding in zoos, where koalas are bred for educational purposes to be accustomed to humans.
These joeys are bred for release into the wild, so the yards are forested and koalas have access to full height koala food trees.
"This provides them with really natural mating opportunities, which I think is one of the reasons we're seeing success so far with our breeding programme," Farquharson said.
Koalas 'paired up'
KCA manages genetics by playing matchmaker for the selected breeding koalas.
"At the moment we have eight boys and 10 girls in our breeding programme," Farquharson said.
"We need to know who's going to be paired up with who and also looking at where they are in our yards."
Farquarson said it might be as simple as opening a gate panel between some larger enclosures to allow natural movement of a male and a female.
"We're limiting stress in having to capture them to move them, and allowing them to still have those kinds of territories as such that the males establish too."
When the koalas first come into the breeding programme, the scientists take a small sample for DNA, which is sent for genetic sequencing.
The results are then analysed for similarities to make sure the animals aren't related to maximise the diversity of koalas in the local population.
"We do an initial pouch check post pairing, just to check whether there is a pinky, which is when they're the little jellybean-sized joey attached in the pouch."
Farquharson said the aim was to produce a robust cohort of joeys that were unrelated, to be released together. They would then be more likely to establish a territory and start mating together.
Taronga Conservation Australia has partnered with KCA for research into the translocation of the joeys into a suitable wild population.
Kate Farquharson says male koalas are ready for the breeding season and will soon be let into the yard with a female. Photo: ABC Mid North Coast / Emma Siossian
Hopes of success
Rachael Schildkraut, a wildlife conservation officer at Taronga, said programmes like this could play a major role in species conservation.
Taronga has done similar wild breeding programmes for other species, having great success with the western quoll, the greater bilby, Bellinger River turtle, three frog species, two bird species, two lizards and a snail.
"A really good example is, just last year, we were actually able to reintroduce a species of quoll - the western quoll, also known as Chuditch, back into New South Wales," Schildkraut said.
"It had been extinct here in New South Wales for at least 100 years.
"We brought in a small number of wild animals, just like KCA did, to breed, and then were able to release from that into the wild."
Schildkraut said the same principles that guided their western quoll wild breeding had steered KCA's programme.
"I'm feeling quietly confident that it's been a highly successful translocation," she said.
"A conservation breeding programme like this one is a game-changer for struggling species on the brink of extinction."
- ABC News
