We know koalas are in trouble because of habitat destruction and climate change. What we don鈥檛 know is where exactly they are, making it hard to target conservation efforts for the threatened marsupials.
The surprising solution may lie in airborne thermal cameras and virtual reality, which an Australian project has demonstrated could much more accurately pinpoint where koalas live.
鈥淜oalas can be really hard to spot, even by trained observers. They are slow moving and cryptic, often hidden high in the canopy and in areas that are hard for us to access,鈥� says Catherine Leigh of Queensland University of Technology.
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Her answer was to go high-tech.聽Between 2012 and 2017, ground surveys by volunteers and members of the study team collected images that were turned into virtual reality environments, allowing koala experts to monitor multiple sites without the need to travel.
鈥淚mmersing someone in 360-degree imagery is a very effective way of eliciting expert information because the immersive experience gives the viewer so much more information about the site than if they were to look at a two-dimensional photo. The viewer is virtually placed at the site, as though they were actually there,鈥� says Leigh.
The team combined the virtual surveys with thermal images captured by drones and traditional ground surveys. The trio proved 75 per cent more accurate at predicting koala locations than ground surveys alone, which are often conducted by non-expert volunteers.
The research is not an argument for ditching traditional ground surveys but for combining them with new technologies to better protect koalas, says Leigh. 鈥淭he biodiversity crisis can鈥檛 be solved by one discipline or data source alone,鈥� she says.
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