Swamp
Wallaby Wallabia bicolor
 |
Swamp
Wallaby Wallabia bicolor |
There is little research
into the effects of roads on wildlife populations, both in terms of fatalities
through collisions with vehicles and in terms of habitat use.
The Foundation for
National Parks & Wildlife funded a project to explore the impact of
a major freeway leading out of Sydney on a population of swamp wallabies.
Scientists equipped
nine swamp wallabies with radio transmitters and tracked their movements
around the F3 freeway for three months.
Through radio tracking
and telemetry this project examined movement patterns of individual animals
around the F3 freeway, determining how often animals cross roads, whether
they use available underpasses and whether they show any alteration of
their normal patterns of behaviour and habitat preferences.
The data showed that
these swamp wallabies, though generally solitary, lived in surprisingly
close proximity to each other, and that they seemed to accept the road
as a natural boundary of their territories.
The team is now approaching
the Road Traffic Authority to agree to monitor road-kill on the freeway
and to provide DNA samples.
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