The effect of roads and traffic on habitat and wildlife is widespread, affecting both the biotic and abiotic environment. Australian research has typically focussed on the impact of roads on macropodids however, fatalities of the common wombat (Vombatus ursinus) are frequent along many Australian roads. Although generally perceived as common throughout their range, little is known to what extent wombat populations have declined since European arrival, or what the driving factors of decline are.

 

My research aims to quantify the dispersion and survival of common wombats in road-impacted environments, while the focus of my research is a 40 km stretch of the Snowy Mountains Highway in Kosciuszko National Park. We have nine years of fatality information for this stretch of road, with great variability in the average number of animals killed each year. The study is Geographic Information System (GIS) based and uses locations of killed animals as well as burrow locations as base information.

 

I am looking at the spatial aspects of metapopulation dynamics, as well as population trends in light of dispersal, recolonisation and potential limiting factors. The goals of my research are to quantify the: