NSW government rejected expert advice before failed koala reintroduction that left more than half dead | New South Wales

The New South Wales government has rejected the advice of a panel of scientific experts before attempting to reintroduce koalas into a forest in the state’s south, leading to the death of more than half of the animals.

Internal documents show most members of a committee advising the state environment department on plans to relocate endangered koalas as part of a conservation strategy advising against moving the marsupials from the forest near Wollongong to the South East Forest National Park near Bega, a five-hour drive away.

Documents show eight of the 13 koalas relocated in March died – one more than the government initially claimed when Guardian Australia revealed the deaths in July.

They died over a period of two months. Some remained in the forest for six weeks after the first deaths, contrary to the government’s public statement that all were taken into care once the first deaths were recorded.

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Necropsies, known as necropsies, carried out on seven of the koalas showed they were malnourished and emaciated, but most reports obtained by Guardian Australia did not conclude the cause of death.

The koalas were moved – or translocated – as part of a project to reintroduce the species to an area where the species was “locally extinct”.

The documents, some leaked to Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws and others obtained by the NSW Greens after a parliamentary order, show the panel of external scientists and ministry staff advising the Minns government on the scientific authorization of koala translocations recommended that the Department of Environment proceed with captive feeding. tests with koalas before releasing them near Bega.

Mathew Crowther, a professor of conservation ecology at the University of Sydney and a committee member, said the committee’s independent experts believed the translocation plan was “particularly risky” because the koalas were being moved a long distance and the department had not done enough work to establish why they were not already living in the southeastern forest.

He said the department had assessed what tree species were found in the southeast, but committee members were concerned that there had not been a review of nutrient and toxin levels in the leaves.

“I suspect that either the nitrogen levels in the leaves were not high enough and/or the toxins were too high,” Crowther said. “Koalas have a very strict diet…if the nitrogen isn’t high enough and the toxins are high, the koala can’t survive. It can’t get enough nutritional content.”

The documents show that department officials rejected the committee’s suggestion of a captive feeding trial on the grounds that there were “significant risks to containing koalas in enclosures, including adverse health effects associated with additional stress, risk of injury, deterioration of their physical condition and ability to climb”.

NSW Greens environment spokeswoman Sue Higginson said the documents suggest the department was so determined to progress with the transfer that it led to “reckless indifference to the welfare and plight of each animal”. She said she had referred the deaths to the RSPCA for an investigation into possible animal cruelty.

“It is clear that independent expert advice has been sidelined,” Higginson said. « Licenses [to move the koalas] were granted in the face of the identified risk of failure and death, the animals were left to die after the first koalas were found starved to death and what happened can then only be described as a coordinated cover-up of the truth.

The documents show discrepancies between what the government told Guardian Australia when it first reported on the issue in July and what was being discussed internally.

The Environment Ministry initially said three koalas died in two days in April and that autopsies on two of the animals suggested they likely died from septicaemia, a blood infection.

The department said the remaining 10 animals were then taken into care, but four others died. The remaining six healthy koalas were returned to their original habitat in the Upper Nepean State Conservation Area, west of Wollongong.

At the time, a department spokesperson said the team working on the project was investigating a potential link between “sepsis in koalas and adverse weather conditions, as the mortalities occurred four to five days after a significant rainfall event”.

But according to two department reports released in the document cache, the first sign of trouble in the Southeast Forest was when a female koala was found on the ground, suffering from dehydration and with her ear tag stuck in her collar, on April 2. He was treated and returned to his original habitat near Wollongong.

Over the next two days, two koalas were found dead in the South East forest. A third had to be euthanized. Department staff then captured the remaining nine koalas for health checks. Six lost weight and muscle mass and were taken into care, but three females were deemed healthy and released back to the southeast and monitored.

Two of the six koalas taken into care died. Of the three that remained transferred, one was observed “unusually low in a tree” in early May, taken into custody and found dead in its enclosure nine days later. Another was found on the ground near death in late May, and died while being taken to a veterinarian. The third was taken back five days later.

This koala and the four surviving koalas taken into care were eventually returned home to the Upper Nepean. But the first female koala removed from the southeast on April 2 was found dead and decomposed during a welfare check, bringing the death toll to eight.

Necropsy reports on seven of the dead koalas showed signs of pneumonia or septicemia in a few animals, but all suffered from “emaciation”, “malnutrition” or poor body condition.

Higginson said she was particularly concerned about a necropsy report showing one of the transferred female koalas was carrying a cub. The cub was found dead in the female’s pouch during a health check after the first koala death in April. The adult was released into the Southeast Forest, but was among the animals that later died.

The documents show that emails between department officials indicated that the expert panel charged with determining whether the transfer should take place was unable to reach consensus, but that the proposal “was largely unsupported.”

The committee made recommendations to address its concerns, including proposing a captive feeding trial before releasing koalas into the south-east, but these were “largely not accepted” by the department.

Instead, the email chain showed the department’s science licensing unit had approved the transfer because it was a priority to meet the target of eight koala translocation projects as part of a national conservation strategy for the species. Officials said “uncertainty around survival is part of the project” and that the transfer team had carefully examined the habitat and built “checks and balances” into the project.

An Environment Department spokesperson said the translocation project aimed to re-establish a once-healthy koala population in the south-east and that the team working on the project had taken into account advice from a “range of different experts”.

“In some cases there were conflicting opinions between the panel, veterinarians and other experts,” the spokesperson said. “A thorough review is underway to examine all the circumstances, including planning, advice, implementation, monitoring and post-release response. »

They said the review should be completed by December.