Movement of small mammals through a road-underpass is facilitated by a wildlife railing
Ross L. Goldingay A C , Brendan D. Taylor A B and Jonathan L. Parkyn AA School of Environment, Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia.
B Present address: Sandpiper Ecological Surveys Pty Ltd, PO Box 401, Alstonville, NSW 2477, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: ross.goldingay@scu.edu.au
Australian Mammalogy 41(1) 142-146 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM17056
Submitted: 30 November 2017 Accepted: 17 February 2018 Published: 21 March 2018
Abstract
Wildlife underpasses in Australia are commonly fitted with timber railings to facilitate the passage of arboreal and scansorial mammals but there are no published accounts of railing use. We compared detections of such mammals on railings in two underpasses to detections on the ground in these and other underpasses. The brown antechinus (Antechinus stuartii) and the black rat (Rattus rattus) were detected on a closely monitored railing on 12–14% of nights over three years. These species were detected on the ground of underpasses on <1% of nights. Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) and brushtail possums (Trichosurus spp.) were infrequently detected, koalas only on the ground and brushtail possums mostly on the ground. These observations suggest that road crossings by small scansorial mammals can be facilitated by timber railings.
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