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Australia still doesn’t have a map of koala genetic diversity, or understand the similarities between southern and northern animals, says Dr Hogg.
“After the [Black Summer] bushfires we lost 25 per cent of koala habitat and we really have no idea of what else we lost.”
Koala experts have taken tiny skin samples from animals in Victoria’s far east to add to a genetic map of their species that scientists hope will help them understand how to better conserve the species.
This level of deep genome sequencing has not yet been attempted for any animals aside from humans, but later the program will focus on other species’ genomes, including the bilby, numbat and the Christmas Island skink.
The long-term future for Australian koalas is uncertain, and the picture is different in the northern and southern states. Koala numbers are dwindling in NSW and Queensland because of habitat clearing and loss, bushfire and disease.
But in Victoria, they suffer from a devastating overabundance in some areas and low genetic diversity. This is a historic legacy from attempts to repopulate the state after the hunting era with koalas from island populations that had tiny gene pools.
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This has left the current Victorian koalas vulnerable to starvation and conditions such as the facial tumour disease that has devastated Tasmanian devil populations.
“Because Victorian koalas are so genetically poor, if they are vulnerable to a disease that comes through, then that’s it”, says Dr Ashman, “We’re on a precarious tightrope with koalas down here.”
Fortunately, there may be small pockets of genetically diverse Victorian koala populations left from pre-hunting times, including in the Strzelecki Ranges, which the genome project hopes to identify.
WWF-Australia’s program Koalas Forever has the aim of doubling koala numbers on the east coast by 2050.
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