After descending from trees, koalas are at the highest risk of death from cars, dogs
Koalas spend only 1% of their lives on the ground—but that time is associated with 66% of the animals’ deaths. The animals spend up to 20 hours a day sleeping, with most of the rest of the time munching on eucalyptus leaves. But for about 10 minutes out of their day, koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) crawl along the ground, traveling between trees searching for food or mates. In new research presented at the 2025 Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Belgium, Gabriella Sparkes, a PhD student at the University of Queensland, and her team fitted 10 koalas with custom-built collars with GPS and accelerometers. Living in a landscape that had been cleared for farming, the researchers tracked where the koalas moved and how quickly. Sparkes found that koalas’ movements varied depending on the landscapes they were in. “Koalas in the wooded areas went to the ground more frequently in a night but spent less time there,” she told the Australia Broadcasting Company. Deforested areas and roadsides are more dangerous for koalas, as they have to spend longer amounts of time on the ground traveling from tree to tree. Researchers hope this research will help guide conservation efforts to help limit the time koalas spend on the ground, like increasing canopy and habitat connectivity.
Read more at ABC News.
