Database records of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in northern Sydney
Matthew Mo
A * , Enhua Lee A , Ian Radosavljevic A and Nancy Auerbach A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Planning and Environment, Biodiversity, Conservation and Science Directorate, 4 Parramatta Square, 12 Darcy Street, Parramatta, NSW 2150, Australia.
Australian Mammalogy 45(3) 335-343 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM22035
Submitted: 19 November 2022 Accepted: 14 May 2023 Published: 1 June 2023
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Mammal Society. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
This study examined records of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in northern Sydney held in online biodiversity databases. There were 221 unique records distributed across the Northern Beaches, Ku-ring-gai, Hornsby and Hills Shire local government areas from 1788 to 2022, with records from the Northern Beaches local government area comprising 68% of this dataset. Records from the 1970s represented 41% of the dataset (90 records), while there were only 42 records from 2000 to 2022. Post-2000 records were spread broadly, showing no major contraction in distribution compared to the spread of earlier records, but with a notable absence of more recent records on the Barrenjoey Peninsula, a previously documented species stronghold. Substantial proportions of records were found in both protected reserves and privately-owned lands, which alludes to the value of the former but also shows that koala conservation in this capital city cannot rely solely on protected reserves. The 2000–22 records were widely distributed across 15 plant community types and areas of non-native vegetation, probably reflecting breeding and dispersal movements more than specific habitat selection. Possibly due to the same influences, none of the 2000–22 records were matched to areas represented by the Koala Habitat Suitability Model, a prediction model for spatial distribution of potential koala habitat across NSW, with a high habitat suitability score (greater than 0.85). We therefore recommend systematic on-ground surveys to clarify the patterns observed from the records.
Keywords: community science, endangered species, habitat suitability, land tenure, marsupial, plant community types, Sydney metropolitan area, threatened species, urban environments.
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