ACT Gula (Koala) Monitoring

Licensed for reuse by Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0.

Monitoring was conducted by the Office of Nature Conservation of the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate, ACT Government.

This data was collected to assess the presence/absence of Gula (the Ngunnawal language word for Koala) on Ngunnawal Country in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Passive acoustic monitoring audio was examined for male bellows, which are produced as a sexual advertisement signal during the breeding season.

Monitoring was undertaken over the summers of 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, during the Gula’s breeding season. Audio recorders were deployed to 46 sites within Eucalypt forests across the ACT, each for a period of two weeks, where they recorded nightly from 30 mins before sunset to 30 mins after sunrise.

Some locations are obfuscated to protect personal privacy. ACT Government Online Maps and Apps users can access locations information at: https://actgov.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=754e28fb20dd4335881cd8623eb1f489 Other users can contact jaimie.hopkins@act.gov.au to request location information.

Sites with the prefix “NKMP” were monitored as part of the National Koala Monitoring Program. More information about the program can be found at https://nkmp.org.au/