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A round of burp-like grunting noises heard in the heights of Mount Kembla has experts convinced a colony of koalas has taken up residence, ending a 70-year hiatus.
Two months after a lone koala wandered in front of a motion-sensor camera atop the mountain, a formal survey has shown the creature was not alone.
Office of Environment and Heritage senior threatened species officer Kylie Madden said eight koalas were recently spotted over three nights, as part of an ongoing survey. Four males were heard ‘bellowing’ – a sure sign that love is in the air, in koala-land.
“The [motion-sensor sighting] was one koala – we had no idea if that was just some lost individual,” Ms Madden said.
“This bellowing is a mating call, so it’s very likely we‘ve got a breeding population there. To find eight in three days is terrific. It’s a good news story.”
Koalas “in their tens of thousands” were hunted for their skins during the Great Depression, and this is thought a factor in their disappearance from Mount Kembla about 70 years ago, Ms Madden said.
The survey has so far covered water catchment area where public access is prohibited.
Pockets of good farming country – rarities in the mostly sandstone-floored escarpment – were cleared for agriculture before the area was given its protected status.
Ms Madden believes area has now regenerated enough to pique the interest of young koalas from colonies in Campbelltown or East Kangaloon, about 25kms away.
“From a koala’s point of view, not all bush is equal,” she said. “The good soils produce high nutrient leaves, so koalas seek out these soils.”
“If all the territories of an existing colony are full, young koalas will strike out on their own, looking for new territories.”
Dapto dad Jarrad O’Leary was visiting Cordeaux Dam off Picton Road on October 9 when his five-year- old son Madden O’Leary pointed to the trees and asked, ‘what’s that?’.
“I said, ‘it’s a koala’,” Mr O’Leary told the Mercury. “He [the koala] was just sitting there scratching himself.
“I haven't seen one in the wild before – I was just blown away.”
The Mount Kembla koala survey will continue until December.