Anthropogenic and environmental factors associated with koala deaths due to dog attacks and vehicle collisions in South-East Queensland, Australia, 2009-2013.

ABSTRACT: Populations of the iconic Australian koala are under constant decline. Their deaths are associated with rapid and extensive urbanization and the fragmentation of habitat areas. Using citizen science data on reported koala mortalities, we quantified the association between anthropogenic and environmental factors and the two leading causes of koala deaths, dog attacks and vehicle collisions. We achieved this objective using a case-control study design to compare the odds of exposure to a given risk factor for cases (a given cause of death) with the odds of exposure to a given risk factor for controls (all other causes of death). Koala deaths due to dog attacks were positively associated with registered dog population density and negatively associated with lot density whereas koala deaths due

SUBMITTER: Dissanayake RB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10471613 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature