The localized clustering of wildlife vehicle-strike in space and time, often called ‘hot spots’, are commonly used to guide placement of road mitigation installations. We interrogated koala vehicle-strike data across a 20-year period between 1997 and 2016, examining trends in identified hot spots. We found that hot spots were not static and decline or emerge in line with the resultant pressures (e.g., from development and associated traffic increases) being exerted on koala populations within the surrounding landscape. We suggest that there is likely to be a relationship between hot spots waning over time and localized extinction of koalas. We feel strategies that solely focus on hot spot intervention will do little to halt and reverse the significant decline in the koala population across South East Queensland because they are almost always retrospective. It is imperative that regional wildlife movement solutions, around and across roads, are appropriately planned and implemented ahead of time (i.e., during initial construction/developmental expansion), if they are to serve as effective mitigation for remaining local koala population across South East Queensland. We caution against recommending mitigation based solely on historical vehicle-strike data without considering contemporary population, movement and behavioural data.

中文翻译：

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空间和时间中的考拉：昆士兰东南部 20 年车辆撞击趋势和热点地区的教训

野生动物车辆撞击在空间和时间上的局部聚集，通常称为“热点”，通常用于指导道路缓解设施的放置。我们调查了 1997 年至 2016 年 20 年间考拉车辆撞击数据，研究了已识别热点的趋势。我们发现热点并不是静态的，而是随着对周围景观中考拉种群施加的压力（例如，来自开发和相关交通量的增加）而减少或出现。我们认为，随着时间的推移，热点地区的减弱与考拉的局部灭绝之间可能存在某种关系。我们认为，仅仅关注热点干预的策略对于阻止和扭转昆士兰东南部考拉数量的大幅下降几乎无济于事，因为它们几乎总是回顾性的。如果要有效缓解昆士兰东南部剩余的当地考拉种群数量，就必须提前（即在最初的建设/开发扩张期间）适当规划和实施道路周围和跨道路的区域野生动物移动解决方案。我们警告不要仅根据历史车辆撞击数据而不考虑当代人口、流动和行为数据来建议缓解措施。