How have koalas in Richmond Range National Park managed the weather chaos of recent years?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-02-16 00:01

Australia; NSW

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The koala population living in the Richmond Range National Park in NSW appears to have remained stable over a 10-year period, despite experiencing both the driest and wettest periods on record during that time, according to Australian research. The researchers extended a previous eight year monitoring project in the region by another two years across 2022-2023 to investigate any impact of the climate extremes. They say the stable koala numbers they saw in their survey could show the national park habitat is particularly suitable for koalas, but also that the long lifespan of koalas means population changes occur slowly. They say current research on koala population dynamics is likely not enough to truly understand how numbers are tracking, with multi-year monitoring programs scarce and often impacted by other conservation efforts that intervene in populations.