Secret koala population discovered near Australian city

“We were surprised to find such a large number of koalas in Sugarloaf State Conservation Area because of its proximity to a major regional city,” study co-author and conservation scientist Ryan Witt of University of Newcastle tells Popular Science. “While the area is [a] known koala habitat, most of New South Wales supports very low koala densities. Discovering a higher-density population so close to urban development is unexpected.”

But koalas aren’t moving closer to people—people are moving into koala habitats. The “secret” population, as it’s described in a statement, has probably been there all along. “They’re existing populations that have been quietly holding on in the bush, right under our noses,” Witt adds. “We just haven’t been able to detect them properly until now.”