Wombat Protection Society of Australia
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.

Seasonality

Go down

Seasonality Empty Seasonality

Post  David Wed Mar 04, 2009 5:50 am

We are coming up to our Roadkill period. We live above 1000m in the Central Tablelands on a major tourist route. The tourist destination just down the road from us gets half a million visitors a year. We also have a major industrial town nearby that uses truck transport both in and out. We get at least 50 - 75 road kills a year between March-April to October. We think that this mainly related to temperature. During summer wombats dont start roaming until the temp drops very late at night to very early in the morning. However during the winter they roam in the early evening when the temp is still warm and not freezing. This is when they meet the tourists and the trucks. The wombat occurance appears mainly arround forest transition to pasture. We vary rarely see wombats in the open pasture areas or the thick forest. If we see them in the forest there is usually and open grassy area nearby.

Has anybody notice seasonality to roadkill in their area and have any idea why it occurs?
David
David
Admin

Posts : 141
Join date : 2009-01-23

Back to top Go down

Seasonality Empty road kill

Post  Guest Mon Mar 09, 2009 3:55 am

Hallo, yes we seen this change as well. It is a relief when summer comes as you know that there will not be as much road kill. The wombats killed on the roads has just started again this week.....when daylight savings ends, we will have a short period of not much road kill ...then it will start full on again....when the daylight hours become less.
I have had no luck with the RTA...which covers highways...but our local council has been very good with putting up signs...Bega Valley. The only reason we have had good luck with council is that the person in charge of that section is a young person who cares about wildlife. I went to him many years ago and took some baby wombats and showed them around the office.....this had a very big affect.
We still have a huge road kill every year and it is heartbreaking.
Lately I have noticed that people are pulling the wombats off the road .....but some of them are not dead......so it is important to check all of them.
I am just about to write a letter to the paper...although it will not be published as no-one wants to upset the farmers....but yesterday Sunday 8th March I came accross something shocking. I already knew the wombat was dead as I had pulled it off the road myself......but some idiot had retrieved the wombat and tapped yellow electrical tape around it's arms and hands and put beer cans in them and tapped it to a pole on the side of the road...This was in Wolumla....home of the cow cockie.
It was very upsetting.
I am about to tackle the RTA again. I don't think we should let up. Lenore

Guest
Guest


Back to top Go down

Back to top


 
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum