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.
Jagger is the first koala to be bred as part of the Living Koala Genome Bank pilot program, led by the University of Queensland (UQ), and was on Friday released into Elanora Conservation Park on the Gold Coast.
“Jagger is disease-free, has been fully vaccinated against chlamydia and – thanks to his diverse genetics – will protect koalas against the dangers of inbreeding,” UQ Associate Prof Stephen Johnston said.
“He’s just one member of our recently completed pilot project … where we propagate koalas with high genetic merit to be released into the wild, improving genetic variation.”
The pilot program, a collaboration between UQ, the Queensland University of Technology and the Dreamworld Wildlife Foundation, aimed to safeguard koalas against inbreeding and disease.
“We’ve used proven breeding technologies in combination with an in-depth analyses of koala genetics and disease screening to help manage and conserve koala populations,” Johnston said.
Queensland’s koala population has dropped by at least 50% since 2001 as a result of deforestation, drought and bushfires.
The federal government listed the marsupial as endangered in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory in February – years after tens of thousands of koalas were killed in the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires.
Johnston said the primary threat to koalas in Queensland was habitat fragmentation, caused by land clearing and the development of roads and houses.
He said this resulted in smaller numbers of koalas, heightening the risk of inbreeding.
“Inbreeding … could result in deleterious alleles such as low fertility and diseases … as well as other abnormalities like scoliosis or cryptorchid testicles,” Johnston said.
This is something the pilot program has sought to eliminate.
But Johnston said there was “no point” in breeding healthy animals in captivity if they were unable to be released.
“It’s really important to save habitat but as the population grows,” Johnston said. “We’ve got to find ways to coexist with koalas.
“We’ve shown that we’ve got a set of tools that can be really useful for managing populations as they begin as they go into smaller fragmentations.”
Johnston was hopeful that collaborations between zoos and universities could become a model to help the long-term conservation of koalas in the wild.
“Excitingly, we have been able to demonstrate that zoos, in combination with expertise from universities, can significantly boost conservation outcomes,” he said.
“Our hope is that we can now apply our concept to other wildlife parks in Queensland and possibly northern NSW, to safeguard the future of koalas, and we’re currently consulting with government to do just that.”
