At Blair Athol Coal Mine, the research team was introduced to a rather specialised and effective approach to catching koalas. Coal miners tend to think big, so it was probably not surprising that they bought a new way of thinking to the problem of extracting koalas from trees for research investigations.

The approach at Blair Athol involves the use of a bucket truck which is driven to the base of the tree that the koala is sitting in. Thereafter, we simply ride up in the bucket until we are next to the koala and grab it by the wrists, placing it straight into a calico bag.

In this manner, koalas are usually in the bag before they have time to react to the presence of the researchers, so catching is very quick and koalas can often be caught, processed and be back in their tree in about the same amount of time it would take to organise to catch them at other sites.

We are very lucky to have this equipment - and the staff from Blair Athol who operate it - for our catches.

In the late 1980s, researchers at the Koala Study Program developed a koala trap for catching koalas, without climbing the tree. This method has since been used by many other researchers.

Essentially, the trap consists of a metal above-ground swimming pool frame, erected some 2 m from the trunk of the tree the koala is in. A collar (as shown in the photo) can be attached to the trunk of the tree - stopping the koala from re-climbing the tree once it comes down.

Then it is a matter of patience. Koalas can stay in the one tree for several days if they don't like what they see below. However, generally koalas descend and can be retrieved quickly. Some researchers place cage traps inside the boundary of the trap and while we have not used that method we believe it works well.

This method of catching koalas is particularly effective where canopies do not overlap and where time is not of the essence!