It gives researchers (like Ami) regular updates on the whereabouts of the individual wearing the collar.
Check out how the data can be put together:
This map is one that Ami
obtained from Google Earth ... it represents a part of the Brisbane metro area. You can see houses and roads, as well as some forest patches and open grasslands or fields.
On top of the map, Ami has plotted a subset of her koala movement data. Each blue dot represents a fix on a single (female) koala's location, which could be determined to within 10 metres. Locations were obtained every 2 hours over a period of a few months.
And what does this show us?
1. Koalas spend a lot of time on private property. You can see that many of the dots are clustered right behind houses ... this means lots of opportunity for contact with dogs, which can be very dangerous for koalas on the move.
2. Koalas often move across roads between patches of trees. You can see this clearly in the map above - the koala was moving between two main areas, on either side of a busy road. The koala also spent a large amount of time in trees directly adjacent to the road. So, this poses even more risks to urban koalas - as car fatalities are all too common.
3. Koalas are often moving at the same time as people are. What do I mean? Koalas seem to move the most in the evening and night ... overlapping somewhat with commuter traffic in the region.
All this is important information for biologists and policy makers to understand how to protect koalas in urban environments. We'll talk more about conservation efforts another time.
But, for now, just drive carefully. And watch out for koalas.
Written by Amanda Niehaus, PhD, on behalf of the Koala Ecology Group
