Koala Sentinel Program

The New South Wales Koala Population Monitoring Program involves the extensive capture (including recapture), anaesthesia, examination, collection of samples, fitting of individual identifiers and telemetry devices and release of wild koalas to collect data on demography, morphometrics, movement, genomics, health and disease status. Systematic quality control is fundamental to the success of koala field research. This refers to the planned and methodical implementation of processes to ensure standardisation of clinical assessments and procedures; accurate, consistent and reliable data collection; monitoring, identifying and managing potential errors and inconsistencies in data collected during fieldwork; and maintaining sample integrity. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are fundamental to achieving the goals of systematic quality control, by providing detailed, step-by-step instructions that guide the field team to complete tasks accurately, consistently and efficiently. SOPs also ensure compliance with the requirements and principles of safety and welfare of people and koalas, and biosecurity. This document contains the SOPs for the NSW Koala Sentinel Program.