Dispersal patterns in a regional koala population in south-east Queensland

Dique, David S.; Thompson, Jim; Preece, Harriet J.; Villiers, Deidré L. de; Carrick, F. N.

doi:10.1071/wr02043

Cited by 68 publications

(73 citation statements)

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“…Our findings are consistent with other studies that have shown a high probability of trauma for koalas moving in and through fragmented and heavily urbanised areas in south-east Queensland (e.g. Dique et al 2003aDique et al , 2003c. One of the koalas that was killed by a train (F2) had crossed the rail line by climbing over chainwire fencing while a safe underpass under the rail line for pedestrians was within metres of the animal's crossing point.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Unlike other species of animals that rely on closed canopies, understorey or ground cover to move between habitat (e.g. lemuroid ringtail possum, Hemibelideus lemuroides: Wilson et al 2007; the bush rat and the brown antechinus: Strevens 2007), this study is consistent with other radio-tracking studies that monitored koalas that were able to navigate across roads, cleared areas and other less permeable natural and artificial landscape features (Dique et al 2003c;Thompson 2006). Again, a longer study with more detailed monitoring of the behaviour of collared koalas may highlight the reason for the perceived barrier that structures such as koala-climbable fencing pose to some animals and not others.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

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Ecology and movement of urban koalas adjacent to linear infrastructure in coastal south-east Queensland

Oliveira

Murray

Villiers³

et al. 2014

Aust. Mammalogy

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Abstract. In Redland City, koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) are in rapid decline as they are exposed to anthropogenic threats such as habitat clearing, dog attacks, vehicle collisions and disease. This study investigated the influence of linear infrastructure on the movement and habitat use of urban koalas. Seven koalas were tracked for up to 28 weeks during the breeding season. Home ranges were calculated for 95% Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP95%) and 95% fixed Kernel Density (FK95%). Koalas responded to the landscape in different ways. Linear infrastructure did not restrict the movements of most koalas. Home ranges varied from 1.1 to 31.5 ha MCP95% and from 5 to 55 ha for FK95%. Koalas mainly used Eucalyptus tereticornis throughout the study site. A variety of non-regionally endemic and regionally endemic trees in urban and remnant vegetation areas were used, suggesting that all trees are potentially koala habitat. At the completion of the study, four koalas remained alive, two were killed by trains and one died from a dog attack. Despite the small sample size and short duration, our results suggest that koalas are able to navigate linear infrastructure; however, the high rates of mortality associated with these movements puts the long-term viability of urban koala populations in doubt.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Ecology and movement of urban koalas adjacent to linear infrastructure in coastal south-east Queensland

Oliveira

Murray

Villiers³

et al. 2014

Aust. Mammalogy

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“…There is little evidence for longer movements in most cases ), though dispersing individuals, mostly young males, may occasionally cover distances of several kilometres over land with little vegetation. In south east Queensland, the average distance between natal and breeding home ranges was similar for males and females, at approximately 3.5 km (Dique et al 2003b). Maximum dispersal distances were up to approximately 10 km for males and females (Dique et al 2003b).…”

Section: Movement/dispersalmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…In south east Queensland, the average distance between natal and breeding home ranges was similar for males and females, at approximately 3.5 km (Dique et al 2003b). Maximum dispersal distances were up to approximately 10 km for males and females (Dique et al 2003b). Other studies have reported moves of up to 11 km in Tucki Tucki Reserve in New South Wales (Gall 1980) and 16 km in rural south east Queensland (White 1999).…”

Section: Movement/dispersalmentioning

confidence: 89%

The Paradox of Euthanizing Koalas (Phascolarctos Cinereus) to Save Populations From Elimination

Wilson

Craig

Hanger

2015

Journal of Wildlife Diseases

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SummaryThis advice considers the conservation status of the koala Phascolarctos cinereus at two levels -across its entire range, and for the Queensland-New South Wales-Australian Capital Territory portion of its range. This advice revises that previously given by this Committee in September 2010, through the consideration of new information mostly arising from the Senate Inquiry (Senate Environment and Communications References Committee 2011).

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“…Road mortality is recognized as one of the major causes of mortality in this koala population (Dique et al 2003b, Rhodes et al 2011) with an average of nearly 300 deaths a year (Dique et al 2003b) in southeast Queensland. About half of the deaths of dispersing individuals are due to vehicle collisions (Dique et al 2003a) with risk of collision increasing with both traffic volume and speed (Dique et al 2003b). Additionally, roads were found to be a key barrier to genetic flow in the southeast Queensland koala population (Dudaniec et al 2013).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Using fine and coarse conservation targets to maximize cost-effectiveness of road mitigation and protected areas

Polak¹

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The fundamental role of conservation science is to provide land managers and policy-makers with evidence-based practical guidance. Conservation decisions are usually made with limited information and tight budgets. This dictates the need for efficiency and cost-effective actions. Basically, efficiency is the ratio between benefit and cost. The larger the ratio (compared to other systems) the higher the efficiency of that system. When calculating efficiency, benefits and costs are usually in the same currency. In this thesis, cost-effectiveness is the ratio of a non-economic benefit relative to an economic or semi-economic (e.g. area of land) cost. Using decision science and defining objectives (such as achieving certain conservation targets) of the conservation problem we are addressing, can help us find better actions. Once the objectives of the problem are established, decision makers need to decide what features of biodiversity-genes, species, habitat-we intend to benefit. Different conservation problems involve different kinds of biodiversity features, which can represent different levels of coarseness (e.g. single species versus multiple; species versus ecosystems, etc.); each will have different financial costs and biodiversity benefits. However, the cost-effectiveness of choosing conservation features at different levels of coarseness is not well studied. As such, the overarching questions of my thesis are: How does the cost-effectiveness of the conservation outcomes change with the use of different fine-and coarse-scale biodiversity features as target? What are the trade-offs between biodiversity benefit and conservation cost involved when applying fine-and coarse-scale conservation efforts? To examine these questions, I investigated the cost-effectiveness of conservation planning for two major conservation problems: 1) mitigating the effects of roads on wildlife (Chapters 2-3); and 2) the planning of protected area networks (Chapters 4-5). I explored the cost-effectiveness of several aspects of planning at different scales: single species (Chapter 2); from single to multiple species (Chapter 3) and from multispecies to a set of focal species (Chapter 3); and planning at both the multispecies and multi-ecosystem levels (Chapters 4-5). The negative impact of roads on wildlife is a major problem worldwide. The two main direct effects are mortality due to animal-vehicle collision and reduced connectivity due to fragmentation. Mitigation measures such as fences and wildlife passages can be used to II reduce these effects, however they are expensive. The limitation of available conservation funds indicates the need for cost-effective solutions using decision science to decide which mitigation measures to use and where to place them. As such, I first mathematically formulated the problem of which road mitigation measures to place where, for the conservation of the threatened koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) population in the Koala Coast of southeast Queensland (Chapter 2). Each budget step had an optimal mitigat...

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Dispersal patterns in a regional koala population in south-east Queensland

Cited by 68 publications

References 0 publications

Ecology and movement of urban koalas adjacent to linear infrastructure in coastal south-east Queensland

Ecology and movement of urban koalas adjacent to linear infrastructure in coastal south-east Queensland

The Paradox of Euthanizing Koalas (Phascolarctos Cinereus) to Save Populations From Elimination

Using fine and coarse conservation targets to maximize cost-effectiveness of road mitigation and protected areas

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