Teams will scour targeted areas from Black Mountain to Uralla and across to Walcha in search of koalas to add to a database.

The project will utilise two primary search methods.

The University of the Sunshine Coast will bring their koala detection dogs, trained to detect koala scat.

The dogs are about 150 per cent more accurate than humans at detecting the scat and about 20 times faster.

And because koalas do between 100 and 150 poos per day, tracking their scat is a really effective way of working out where they are.

Stringybark Ecological will also be looking for koala scat and they will try to determine the type of vegetation areas the koalas are based.

The field survey comes off the back of a year-long review into the current data available on koalas in the area.

The Northern Tablelands Koala Recovery Strategy is a document prepared for the Northern Tableland Local Lands Service to consolidate and improve baseline knowledge of where koalas are and in what numbers.

Northern Tablelands LLS senior officer Carina Johnson said unfortunately there was not a lot of robust data for the area.

The survey also hopes to identify localised threats to koalas.

Ms Johnson said a threat around Walcha might be different to the threats koalas in Tenterfield are facing.

“If we find that the main threat in a given areas is road kill, then we would look at alternative measure to address that threat,” she said

“But where it is a lack of trees in the landscape, then we would look to support farmers to increase the extent of koala habitat and manage the existing koala habitat.”

Other threats koalas are likely to face includes dog attacks and diseases.

The survey follows a similar study conducted in Tenterfield over the past few months.

Their study included a community focused of a field day that aimed to increase the profile of the iconic marsupial within the area.

Attendees were treated a rare chance to see conservation in action with presentations and koala tracking methods demonstrated.

The Northern Tableland Local Land Service is encouraging community members to report any koalas sighting in the area.

“I strongly advise anyone who sees a koala dead or alive to put that into the Atlas of Living Australia or contact me,” Ms Johnson said.

Ms Johnson said the information community members gave would give them a clearer picture of where koalas were in the region.

“We can’t protect them if we don’t know where they are,” she said.

You can report a sighting online using the Atlas of Living Australia, which is at online at www.ala.org.au or you can contact the Northern Tablelands Local Land Service.

For further information contact Ms Johnson on 6770,2000 or at carina.johnson@lls.nsw.gov.au