Citation

Ellis WA, FitzGibbon SI, Barth BJ, Niehaus AC, David GK, Taylor BD, Matsushige H, Melzer A, Bercovitch FB, Carrick F, Jones DN, Dexter C, Gillett A, Predavec M, Lunney D, Wilson RS. Biol. Lett. 2016; 12(11): e0632.

Affiliation

School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia r.wilson@uq.edu.au.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Royal Society Publishing)

DOI

10.1098/rsbl.2016.0632

PMID

27881767

Abstract

Daylight saving time (DST) could reduce collisions with wildlife by changing the timing of commuter traffic relative to the behaviour of nocturnal animals. To test this idea, we tracked wild koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in southeast Queensland, where koalas have declined by 80% in the last 20 years, and compared their movements with traffic patterns along roads where they are often killed. Using a simple model, we found that DST could decrease collisions with koalas by 8% on weekdays and 11% at weekends, simply by shifting the timing of traffic relative to darkness. Wildlife conservation and road safety should become part of the debate on DST.

© 2016 The Author(s).

Language: en