Recognise the sound of a bellowing koala? Fifty householders in the Lower Blue Mountains will be hoping they can, when new audio devices are planted in their backyards this month to capture the koalas Spring mating.
The project is part of an extensive koala survey being done by local conservation organisation Science for Wildlife to track how many koalas are back in the Greater Blue Mountains after devastating bushfires.
"Detecting these elusive koalas in complex forest canopies is notoriously difficult," said Dr Kellie Leigh, executive director of Science for Wildlife, which is why they are relying on residents help.
Science for Wildlife has been conducting koala population surveys in the greater Blue Mountains since 2014. They also rescued koalas from the fire path of the Black Summer fires and took them to Taronga Zoo until it was safe for them to return. Their research team found that because of their genetic diversity koalas in the Blue Mountains may be important to maintaining sustainable populations of the species in the future.
The status of koalas in Lower Blue Mountains is unknown, although sightings occur every year.
The research team is calling on private property owners in these areas to be part of their Backstreet Bellows project and to register to have a small acoustic recording device on their property for a week. Once the recordings are completed, the data is sent to a lab that uses a special algorithm to identify koala bellows from the many hours of sound.
"If you haven't heard a koala bellow before, it's a bit unexpected coming from such a cute looking animal, it sounds something like a wild boar up a tree" Tina Gallagher who is coordinating the citizen science project for Science from Wildlife.
After surveying the Lower Mountains, the project will be further expanded along the western edge of the Blue Mountains next month, from the Grange, Barker College in Mt Victoria out to Lithgow and the Megalong Valley.
The project is supported by a federal Landcare-led bushfire recovery grant, and the research team is working in partnership with Dr Brad Law (principal research scientist from the Department of Primary Industries). Dr Law developed the audio moths/ songmeter technology to survey for koalas, based on listening for the male koala bellows.
"The recording devices need to be somewhere a bit quiet, so not right near a busy road, or a pond of noisy frogs which would drown out the koala bellows," said Ms Gallagher, who is coordinating the citizen science project.
"If you have a place with a quiet backyard that is connected to nearby bushland that would be ideal".
Council is helping out with the project on their bush reserves. If you'd like to participate in the project, you can register online at www.scienceforwildlife.org/BackstreetBellows.
Mayor Mark Greenhill said koalas were attracted to the Blue Mountains Shale Cap forests in bush reserves and if you lived near them, keeping your dogs on a lead and contained at night and slowing down on roads, would ensure koalas and other wildlife were kept safe.
Science for Wildlife said once koala occupancy is understood then habitat restoration, corridor planning and long-term habitat conservation can be prioritised to increase koala population viability and resilience can happen.
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