A brush with death: roads and Brush-tailed Phascogales

摘要

Roads can have an adverse influence on wildlife by reducing habitat connectivity and causing roadkill (Fahrig and Rytwinski 2009, Strasburg 2006, Taylor and Goldingay 2010,van der Ree et al 2015). Such effects can exacerbate other impacts on threatened species. The Brush-tailed Phascogale Phascogale tapoatafa (Fig. 1) is a threatened arboreal mammal that occurs in low densities throughout much of its former range in eastern Australia. Despite being a frequent roadkill victim, no studies have investigated whether road mortality poses a threat to the long-term survival of the species. I initiated a pilot investigation to determine whether males and females were equally vulnerable to being killed on roads and whether this varied with time of year.