The
Koala Study Program at The University of Queensland consists of a group
of research scientists, led by Senior Lecturer Dr. Frank Carrick A.M.,
with associated postdoctoral research staff and postgraduate students.
As a result, we are able to cover a range of research objectives within
the broad field of koala biology.
All of the information presented in these pages has been the subject of scientific peer review. The list of Publications will take you to the source information, appearing in the scientific literature.
My personal research targets are predominantly field ecology - based, with some work on immunological responses, disease sign expression and physiology bringing me back to the lab from time to time.
In recent years, our group has made a particular investment in investigations of the ecology of koalas in central Queensland, information on which can be found in the pages devoted toThe Blair Athol Koala Study
Even more recently, we have joined
forces with The Koala Research Centre at Central Queensland University
and the associated Central Queensland Koala Volunteers to undertake a long
- term investigation of the ecology of koalas on St Bees Island, off the
coast of Queensland. If you are interested in that work, visit The
StBees Island Koala Study
Our work studying the tree use and ranging behaviour of koalas across their range in Queensland has provided interesting results, some of which can be perused at the page devoted to Ranging.
Our recently published paper describing the breeding behaviour of koalas is summarised under Breeding Studies.
If you are interested in how we determine the diet of koalas, visit the page dedicated to diet analysis that describes the technique developed by students in our laboratory. We do not use the presence of faecal pellets at the base of trees to predict the diet of koalas, since that method has been found to be unreliable.