Thermal technology and drones are being used to scour bushland in Logan to try find out how many koalas are living in the region. However, conservationists say that further action needs to be taken at all levels of government to prevent the endangered marsupial’s habitats from being overdeveloped.
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00:01Using the latest tech to search for an endangered icon.
00:07When we're flying at night everything is dark and we'll see a thermal signature of any animal or bird in the tree
00:15and it's like a light bulb in the tree.
00:20Drone operators are scouring bushland around Logan to find out just how many koalas call the region home.
00:27Just the sheer area that they can cover. The clarity, GPS location of everything you spot.
00:34You get video in high definition. So being able to use that data post is far more accurate.
00:41Similar studies have taken place across the Gold Coast and in North Queensland.
00:46If we want to protect the habitat that koalas live in now and into the future
00:50we have to understand where they are and how they move around our city.
00:54While the Logan Council says the drone surveys will help protect koalas
00:59conservationists have warned more needs to be done by all levels of government
01:04to help save habitat from overdevelopment.
01:07If you're putting roads through koala habitat you see more car strikes.
01:10If you're building houses in there you get more dog attacks
01:13and ultimately also the more koalas are compressed you see higher stress in the population
01:18and that results in less resilience and greater disease.
01:21Environmentalists believe the key to saving the marsupial is building up rather than out.
01:27If we keep doing these giant new PDA developments in the last vestiges of remnant forests in
01:33South-Eat Queensland we are signing a death warrant for the koala.
01:36For now the count to find how many are left continues.