The first Earthwatch “Koala Ecology” got underway recently on St Bees Island. Trained volunteers are involved in koala capture, koala tracking and field ecology. They capture, weigh, measure, tag and radio collar individual koalas and then track collared animals to determine tree use. They are also documenting forest and woodland composition and collecting and processing plant samples. Dr Alistair Melzer and Dr William Ellis (University of Queensland) are investigating a healthy totally unmanaged koala population on St Bees to establish what the island’s koala carrying capacity is and to compare this in areas where management of koala populations has not been successful.