00:02A suburban parkland on Brisbane's bayside and the search is on for a favourite Australian mammal.
00:07It's something that makes Redlands unique, the fact that we have these amazing animals still living in our neighbourhoods.
00:13But koalas are becoming harder to find. Urban development has reduced their habitat, decimating numbers in the Redlands since the
00:21turn of the century.
00:22Those koalas are functionally extinct and will not be here in 50 years.
00:26But the council is adamant it can turn the tide.
00:29I think there's a lot we can do and we're definitely trying to do that.
00:34Data collection is improving. Community members can now snap koala sightings and log them online.
00:40While cameras are training an artificial intelligence system to detect the marsupials so that soon road signs can alert drivers
00:47when koalas are nearby in real time.
00:50Researchers involved say early signs are promising.
00:53Population was declining but at some point depending on the data set you're looking at between 2019 and 2021 there
01:00doesn't seem to have been a change.
01:02Some conservationists argue the population will never recover fully because of the pace of development.
01:07The latest flashpoint is almost in college which is planning a major expansion of its campus which would see hundreds
01:12of koala habitat trees removed.
01:14But the school says it would be a win for koalas promising to replant the trees including crucial eucalypts.
01:21The figures are something like from 50 to take it over the 500 mark in regards to koala food trees.
01:29The koala foundation wants to know what will happen in the meantime.
01:32What are they going to do? Are they going to ask the koalas to pack their bags and move to
01:37some offset site?
01:38The planning minister will have the final say.
01:41What are they going to do?
01:41What are they going to do?
01:41What are they going to do?
01:42What are they going to do?
01:42What are they going to do?
01:42What are they going to do?
01:42You
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