Wildlife mortality on a road in New South Wales

Abstract

From July 1970 to June 1972 1,675 animals of eighty-seven species killed by traffic were found by monthly counts along 301 kilometres or road between Canberra, ACT and Lake Cowal, NSW. The incidents involved birds (65.9%), mammals (29.1%), reptiles (4.9%) and amphibia (0.1%). One bird was found every thirteen kilometres, one mammal every thirty kilometres and one reptile every 176 kilometres. Black-backed Magpies accounted for 37 per cent of the birds. rabbits for 40 per cent of the mammals, and Common Bearded Dragons for 55 per cent of the reptiles.

Most birds were killed during the spring and summer and were mainly young. The highest numbers of animals killed per kilometre were on bitumen roads running through savanna woodland.