KOALA

A Natural History and an Uncertain Future

Danielle Clode

Norton, 2023, 322 pages

Hardback £19.95 | ISBN 10: 1324036834/ISBN 13: 9781324036838

Review by Janet Mackinnon

In 2022 the National Parks Association of Australia castigated the state government-owned New South Wales Forestry Corporation for “illegal activity in the heart of one of the world’s great forests, the proposed Great Koala National Park”. A press release continues: “The public is familiar with images of the clear-felling of Orangutan habitat in Borneo. Similar devastation of threatened species habitat is happening right here on our doorstep with our iconic koalas.” 1

Also published in 2022 was Australian biologist Danielle Clode’s Koala: A Life in Trees, the 2023 North American version of which – Koala: A Natural History and an Uncertain Future – is used for this review.2  Towards the end of her book, Clode observes in a chapter entitled ‘The English Annexation’ that Australia’s distinctive wildlife held little interest for most early European observers, “until someone discovered a way of making money from it,” because the territory was seen as “little more than a penal colony”. Her broader criticism of Eurocentrism arguably still applies; and the aim of this review is to highlight not only the koala’s conservation significance, but also the relevance of Australian efforts to protect and restore the country’s unique ‘megadiversity’ to more general conservation discourses.3,4

Whilst Clode has a doctorate in zoology from Oxford University, alongside freelance research and authorship, her professional work involves teaching creative and academic writing courses across Australia. Koala belongs to the increasingly popular categories of creative non-fiction on natural history and nature conservation, which clearly appeal to many readers although this one has some reservations about the genre(s). The present review therefore considers some of its strengths, including narrative interest, as well as shortcomings. However, it should be stressed that Clode’s book is grounded in comprehensive research and evidence-based science (“There are more scientific papers and government reports on koalas than any other Australian animal”) which she uses to address these central questions:

What makes them do well in some places and so poorly in others?

What do koalas need to maintain a healthy population in all parts of their range?

What are we doing wrong?

The following discussion focuses on how Clode tackles key questions of ecology, largely passing over her extensive accounts of koala natural history, evolution and behaviour whilst fully acknowledging their biological interest and conservation significance.

Koala distribution

One criticism that can be legitimately made of Koala – A Natural History and Uncertain Future is a lack of illustrations, the main exceptions being a species distribution map and evolutionary tree for Marsupialia near the book’s start. Clode’s map is similar to one in a 2022 Australian Museum web article (Future-proofing the koala: how museums can help protect an Australian icon) which is used below.5 This shows the recent ‘migration’ of koala populations into South Australia where Clode is based, and she provides an informative first-hand description of their movement. This is largely a result of translocations, breeding programmes and re-introductions of animals from the 1930s around Adelaide’s hinterland, including Kangaroo Island (although nearly half the population here may have died in the 2019-20 wildfires), when concerns about possible koala extinction first arose. Elsewhere in Australia, particularly New South Wales, including the Australian Capital Territory, and Queensland, koala distribution has contracted significantly from its historic ranges. As a consequence, the animal’s conservation status under national environmental law for these states was changed from a ‘vulnerable’ listing (since 2012) to ‘endangered’ in early 2022.6 For Clode and other commentators, this designation has served to emphasise differences between ‘Northern’ and ‘Southern’ koala populations, with the former regarded as threatened and the latter ‘over-abundant’ (or unsustainable) for their foraging habitats.

Current and historic koala ranges.
Image: Australian Museum Research Institute

Conservation issues

Also in 2022, Australia’s federal government (Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water) published a ‘National Recovery Plan for the Koala’ under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.7 Clode’s book highlighted the need for such a plan to tackle the respective decline and, arguably, unsustainable growth of northern and southern koala populations. However, she and many others have been critical about over-simplistic approaches to their management right across Eastern Australia.

Ecologically, as well as evolutionarily, koalas really do sit alone in their tree

Like humans, Clode observes that koalas are “phylogenetically sterile – that is lacking in close (evolutionary) relatives” (the closest ones are wombats). However, Phascolarctos cinereus, or ‘ash-coloured pouched bear’ is the only extant ‘modern representative’ of 20 or so prehistoric koala species, whereas “we can count distant cousins among the other apes and even monkeys” still living. Northern and southern koalas do nonetheless represent “two distinct physical variations” which are described on The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary website:

“Compared to their northern cousins, southern koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus victor) are much larger in size, weighing up to 9kgs for females and 15kg for males. Instead of short fur, they have a longer and denser coat, usually brown-grey in colour, predominantly to keep them warm in the southern winter months”.8

Located in Brisbane, Lone Pine is ‘Australia’s oldest and largest koala sanctuary’ founded in 1927, and receives several mentions from Clode. Like her, the sanctuary emphasises animal “variations are very similar in terms of breeding and reproduction, diet and behaviour.”

Nevertheless, northern koala populations appear more vulnerable to often-fatal chlamydia, particularly in south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales which may be both cause and consequence of population contractions. Vaccination trials are now underway in these areas with the use of implants under consideration.9 Meanwhile, ‘over-abundant’ southern koalas in Victoria and elsewhere are subject to contraception programmes.10

Such interventions should be placed within the context of Australia’s total koala population. Unfortunately, there is an extremely wide range of estimates for this. The Australian Koala Foundation estimates that there may be “less than 63,665 koalas left in the wild, possibly as few as 38,648;” whereas the federal government’s “current best available estimate for the national koala population is between 287,830 and 628,010 individuals.”11,12 Clode’s book highlights the difficult of obtaining accurate koala census data along with other key conservation metrics notwithstanding the status of Australia’s most studied animal.

What does emerge is a consensus in principle on the importance of koala habitat protection and restoration. In a question-and-answer entry for Quora/Forbes, Clode writes:

“The loss of koala habitat loss was one of the big questions I wanted to answer when I started writing my book on koalas. As a conservation biologist I knew that clearing native vegetation, especially trees, was meant to be banned across Australia now, so why are the forests, and koala habitat, still disappearing?” 13

Again, to put this question in context, a 2021 Worldwide Fund for Nature report identified “eastern Australia among 24 global deforestation fronts – the only developed nation on the list,” while at the same time the region was listed as a ‘global biodiversity hotspot”.14 The Australian Koala Foundation maintains that: “Since European settlement, approximately 80% of koala habitat has been decimated. Of the remaining 20% almost none is protected and most occurs on privately-owned land.” Their web page dedicated to habitat issues maintains:

“Koala populations only occur if suitable habitat is available. The two most important factors which make habitats suitable are: (1) the presence of tree species preferred by Koalas (usually eucalypts, but also some non-eucalypts) growing in particular associations on suitable soils with adequate rainfall and (2) the presence of other Koalas”.15

The question then arises as to whether increasingly scarce habitat is best conserved through a network of protected areas and reserves, such as the proposed Great Koala National Park; or “that koala recovery can best be achieved through a landscape-wide approach to active management of these populations and their forest habitats across all land tenures”.16 Forestry Australia advocates the second approach because of National Park under-funding and “relatively passive management” which “can remove opportunities for Traditional Owner self-determination of culturally appropriate land management practices” on a broadscale.17

A future in flames?

In 2010, Clode published A Future in Flames about Australia’s vulnerability and responses to wildfires, updating her thoughts in a December 2019 article for The Conversation as some of the most devastating wildfires in the country’s history peaked in a so-called ‘Black Summer.’ 18,19,20 Meanwhile, Australian public discourse (some might call a ‘hostile environment’) around the realities of climate change, together with the actual risks these pose, has raged for many years. The independent Climate Council condemned previous Liberal-National government inactivity as ‘one of the defining leadership failures’ of the period 2014-2022, at the end of which a new Labour administration was elected with agendas to address climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience combined with a ‘Nature Positive Plan.’ 21,22 The IUCN lists the koala as one of 10 species globally that are most vulnerable to climate change because of their limited capacity to adapt to rapid environmental changes. Australian research for species ‘adaptation case studies’ predicts a “significant progressive eastward and southward contraction in the koala’s current climatic range” between 2030-70.23 In other words, future environmental conditions linked to climate change projections are likely to reinforce patterns of koala distribution which have emerged since European colonisation, and particularly in the 20th and 21st centuries, due to a range of other factors. Top of these is the destruction of habit as highlighted by the Australian Koala Foundation, not just at the  state level but also in local areas across Eastern Australia.15 New research confirms that “protected area coverage has a positive effect on koala occurrence,” but also vital are better local conservation and restoration initiatives of the kind described in Clode’s book.24 Integrating these with climate change adaptation and resilience programmes is essential.

Probable contraction of koala eucalyptus habitat 1750-2001
Image: National Geographic

Finally, let us return to the strengths and weaknesses of creative non-fiction for writing on natural history and nature conservation. Again, the above National Geographic maps show the usefulness of good illustrations for the type of narrative contained in Koala – A Natural History and Uncertain Future. Leaving aside the aforementioned difficulty of calculating present koala numbers, let alone the size of historic populations, the maps depict a likely decline from millions of animals to current ranges between hundreds to tens of thousands. 11,12 Lack of illustrations aside, Clode has undoubtedly made an important contribution to galvanising Australian and global interest in the fate of this iconic species. Her book has been favourably reviewed by writers on nature and conservation such as German ‘tree whisperer’ Peter Wohlleben and the American Mark Bekoff.

However, its story also reflects basic environmental governance failures that Australia shares with many other western countries, including the UK.25 These state failures are widely exploited by certain economic sectors (including government stakeholders like the New South Wales Forestry Corporation cited earlier). They require highly targeted collective responses, which those involved in conservation often struggle to deliver because increasing competition for public attention and resources tends to fundamentally challenge genuine co-operation. Clode takes up this environmental governance challenge for the proposed Great Koala National Park in a new co-authored article for The Conversation.26

References

1. https://npansw.org.au/2022/07/13/out-of-control-forestry-corporation-caught-destroying-more-koala-habitat

2. https://danielleclode.com.au/

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megadiverse_countries

4. https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/land/nrs/about-nrs/protecting-biodiversity

5. https://australian.museum/blog/amri-news/future-proofing-the-koala-how-museums-can-help-protect-an-australian-icon

6. https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/biodiversity/threatened/publications/referral-guidelines-endangered-koala

7. https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/biodiversity/threatened/publications/recovery/koala-2022

8. https://lonepinekoalasanctuary.com/southern-koala

9. https://theconversation.com/koalas-need-their-booster-shots-too-heres-a-way-to-beat-chlamydia-with-just-1-capture-and-less-trauma-211610

10. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2263654-koalas-are-being-given-birth-control-to-fight-overpopulation

11. https://www.savethekoala.com/about-koalas/the-koala-endangered-or-not

12. https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/biodiversity/threatened/species/koalas/national-koala-monitoring-program

13. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2022/11/30/how-we-can-preserve-koala-habitats

14. https://wwf.org.au/news/2021/australia-remains-the-only-developed-nation-on-the-list-of-global-deforestation-fronts

15. https://www.savethekoala.com/about-koalas/koala-habitat

16. https://arr.news/2023/03/20/an-open-letter-to-the-hon-chris-minns-mp-and-the-hon-penny-sharpe-mp-forestry-australia

17. . https://www.preventionweb.net/news/cultural-burns-can-help-protect-koalas-new-research

18. https://danielleclode.com.au/flames

19. https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-living-with-fire-and-facing-our-fears-128093

20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_Australian_bushfire_season

21. https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/FINAL_CC_The-Lost-Decade_Low-Res.pdf

22. https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/nature-positive-plan.pdf

23. https://nccarf.jcu.edu.au/terrestrialbiodiversity/documents/koalacasestudy_final.pdf

24. Terraube, J., Gardiner, R., Hohwieler, K. et al. Protected area coverage has a positive effect on koala occurrence in Eastern Australia. Biodivers Conserv 32, 2495–2511 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-023-02615-w

25. https://www.sydney.edu.au/sydney-environment-institute/news/2022/08/08/environmental-governance-failures-in-australia–probing-problems.html

26. https://theconversation.com/a-home-among-the-gum-trees-will-the-great-koala-national-park-actually-save-koalas-217276

Cite:

Mackinnon, Janet “KOALA” ECOS vol. 2024 , British Association of Nature Conservationists, www.ecos.org.uk/koala/.

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