The South Australian government has teamed up with Flinders University and conservation charity Koala Life to use drones and facial recognition technology to count, identify, and re-identify koalas.

The non-invasive koala monitoring technique will be used as part of a study on koalas at Kangaroo Island and the Adelaide Mount Lofty Ranges to understand their numbers, movements, behaviour, and physiology, and assess whether koalas will show any signs of stress.

"Drone use in animal research is used a lot across Australia, especially in Queensland to monitor koalas. Until now, potential behaviour and physiological impacts haven't been extensively researched so we are one of the few groups investigating this," Flinders University researcher Dr Diane Colombelli-N