‘Diverse genetics’: Queensland researchers hope Jagger the koala will help protect his species

Jagger, the first koala bred in the Living Koala Genome Bank pilot project, has been released into a colony at Elanora Conservation Park on the Gold Coast. Photograph: Supplied by the University of Queensland

Dogs, diseases and droughts – aided and abetted by land clearing and bushfires – have pushed vulnerable koala populations into rapid decline.

It is now hoped that a two-year-old koala named Jagger can help secure the fate of endangered colonies along Australia’s east coast.