Call of the wild: Koalas get mobile phones

THEY say it's good to talk, but now the mobile revolution has been turned upside down as Australian researchers have begun using mobile phones to listen in on koalas' conversations.

Hoping to understand what the animals are saying to one another, the scientists are kitting out each koala with a mobile phone and listening in.

Koalas on St Bees Island off north-east Australia have also been tracked by satellite to monitor their movements and mobile phones have been placed amongst the trees to listen in.

The mobiles, charged by solar power and car batteries, record the koalas' bellows, then download the recordings to a computer at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.

Dr Bill Ellis, head of research at the University of Queensland Koala Study Programme, said: "We are studying whether males are talking to other males or to females, and how vocalisations might stimulate breeding behaviour in female koalas.

"Koala bellows can go from really quite short, sharp, and agitated bellows to long, slow, deep bellows that can last for over a minute. Interestingly, most of the bellowing seems to occur around midnight, not around dawn or dusk when we thought it might have occurred."

The research is being conducted to determine whether male koalas communicate by bellowing to mark out territory and whether bellowing is used to attract females during the breeding season.

Dr Ellis said: "Over the breeding season, males are quite active at the start but their movements die down and females have a spike in movement somewhere in the breeding season.

"After a male and female encounter – and we can't see what they are doing – the female lets out a high-pitched scream and immediately after the male emits a loud bellow."

Results from the study could help experts to manage koala populations by informing wildlife officials of the best time to introduce new animals to a population and the best time to allow changes to koala habitats, such as urban development.

The researchers will be eavesdropping for the rest of the breeding season and hope the results will help scientists around the world understand and protect the species.

Once recorded, the information is fed into an acoustic database, where at researchers at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have developed software to recognise koala calls automatically.

Professor Richard Mason of QUT said the technology, used at Brisbane Airport to research bird calls, was a good way for Dr Ellis to eavesdrop on the marsupials without disturbing them.

Prof Mason said: "The sensors are remote controlled, so if we want to change the recording schedule in response to data on when the calls are most prevalent, then we can." The research has been welcomed by koala expert Donald Gow, the senior keeper of primates and koalas at Edinburgh Zoo.

He said: "If their research is successful then it would be fantastic for people all over the world who work in zoos. We will be able to understand the animals much more than we presently do."

Mr Gow said he hoped Edinburgh Zoo would be able to conduct research of its own to further increase understanding of the creatures.

He added: "We would like to get some equipment to monitor the koalas at night-time.

"During the day, koalas have been criticised for being lazy animals that don't really do much, but at night we suspect that they are much more lively."

Mr Gow said: "If we could understand their bellows then we could replicate them and play the noises to females to see if we can encourage and stimulate their mating patterns. ."

Dr Brian McCabe, a zoology lecturer at Cambridge University, said: "The organisation of animals' vocalisation is often found to be more complicated than originally thought."


BACKGROUND

IN THE wild, koalas are found in coastal areas, mostly in eastern and southern Australia.

They live mainly on a diet of eucalyptus, although this was not their staple until the climate cooled thousands of years ago and eucalyptus forests grew in the place of rainforests.

Like wombats and sloths, koalas have a very low metabolic rate for a mammal and rest motionless for 16 to 18 hours a day, sleeping most of that time.

Koalas are extremely territorial and aggressive animals. They mark their territory with glands in the chest which leave scent on leaves and branches. The animals also have an extremely sensitive sense of smell.

The Australian government lists the koala as a priority species for conservation status assessment.

Some estimates state there are as few as 80,000 koalas left in the wild.