A review of searcher efficiency and carcass persistence in infrastructure-driven mortality assessment studies

Barrientos, Rafael; Martins, Ricardo C.; Ascensão, Fernando; D’Amico, Marcello; Moreira, Francisco; Borda‐de‐Água, Luís

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2018.04.014

Cited by 74 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Field effort in terms of road distance covered and sampling frequency can strongly influence the accuracy of roadkill counts, because roadkills may be clustered in time and space and several biotic (scavengers) and abiotic (rainfall) factors may affect carcass persistence (Guinard et al 2012;Teixeira et al 2013;Barrientos et al 2018).…”

Section: Potential Limitations Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-scale determinants of vertebrate roadkills across a biodiversity hotspot in Southern Spain

et al. 2019

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An increasing number of wildlife-vehicle collisions occur each year worldwide, which involves extensive economic costs and constitutes one of the main anthropogenic causes of animal mortality. Because of this, there is an urgent need to identify the factors leading to collision hotspots and thus implementing effective mitigation measures. By using a stratified random sampling survey, we investigated the fine-scale determinants of roadkill probability in small and medium-sized birds and mammal across a countrysize region of Southern Spain, Andalusia (87000 km 2), located within a global biodiversity hotspot. During two consecutive seasons, we regularly surveyed 45 road transects of 10 km each and characterized the site-specific attributes of both roadkill and random points, including traffic density, road design (embankments, medians, fences, roadside vegetation and distance to curves), and adjacent landscape matrix. Based on this information, we investigated variation in collision risk according to landscape and road features, and the life history of the affected taxa. Mortality rates of mammals and birds increased with traffic density, and were also significantly affected by the distance to the nearest curve, slope of embankments, height of roadside vegetation, and land use adjacent to roads. Road mortality of both birds and mammals was related to the presence and typology of fences and center medians, so more densely vegetated medians and smaller mesh sizes reduced roadkill probability. Overall, our results indicate that roadkill risk may vary at exceedingly small spatial scales. The information provided by this extensive survey may be used to identify taxa-specific factors associated to roadkill risk and priority points for action. Our findings will therefore be relevant for the design of safer roads for both drivers and wildlife through the application of effective mitigation measures.

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Section: Potential Limitations Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-scale determinants of vertebrate roadkills across a biodiversity hotspot in Southern Spain

et al. 2019

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“…Roadside topography, distance to wetlands or water sources, and type of nearby passageways are other important factors, and relate to changes in mortality rates (Clevenger et al, 2003;Medinas, Marques & Mira, 2013). Although studies have suggested that population effects of road mortality may be restricted to only small populations or a few rare species (Forman & Alexander, 1998;Riley, 2006), WVC rates are also frequently underestimations: animals can be removed by scavengers, rain, move off the road after being injured, or simply not detected (Teixeira et al, 2013;Barrientos et al, 2018;Schwartz et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High roadkill rates in the Dong Phayayen‐Khao Yai World Heritage Site: conservation implications of a rising threat to wildlife

Silva

Crane

Savini

2020

Animal Conservation

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Road networks are increasing globally, and as such incur increased pressure on wildlife communities. Large‐scale road expansion and infrastructure development occurring throughout Asia (i.e. Belt and Road Initiative) will affect hundreds of threatened species, leading to an increase in wildlife‐vehicle collisions. However, only a limited number of studies have quantified road mortality within this threatened landscape. To rectify this, we monitored the spatial‐temporal patterns of vertebrate roadkill in the Dong Phayayen‐Khao Yai forest complex, an UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Thailand, considered a refuge for many globally threatened species. We ran 100 standardized road surveys between 2015 and 2017, on a 47.8‐km highway transect currently being expanded, and recorded a total of 1395 casualties from 124 species. After correcting for removal time and detection probability, we estimated an average of 9688 vertebrate mortalities per year. We observed a mortality peak during the dry season for almost all taxonomic groups, due to a combination of high bird and bat mortality events. All taxa showed significant spatial clustering, highlighting high‐risk road sections. We modelled the road and landscape features most likely to lead to higher mortality rates, disentangling small‐scale (250–500 m from road) from large‐scale effects (1000–2500 m). We recorded lower mortality rates and species diversity near forest sites in protected areas, representing either lower crossing events due to habitat quality or an already depleted environment. Spatial analyses provided information on hotspots and landscape factors, which can be used to inform future mitigations at multiple scales throughout the Southeast Asia region. Our study provides a baseline of the direct road impacts on vertebrate species in a tropical biodiversity hotspot, and we suggest that more studies be conducted to fully assess the direct road effects on the many threatened species in this landscape.

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“…a population has already become locally extinct due to traffic pressure. Finally, the persistence of carcasses on the road and so the opportunity to be observed can differ due to a variety of factors such as traffic flow, animal taxon, size (Barrientos et al 2018), and scavenging rates of the carcass (Schwartz et al 2018;Barrientos et al 2018).…”

Section: Using Wildlife-vehicle Collision Data To Inform About Speciementioning

confidence: 99%

The value of monitoring wildlife roadkill

2020

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The number of wildlife-vehicle collisions has an obvious value in estimating the direct effects of roads on wildlife, i.e. mortality due to vehicle collisions. Given the nature of the data-species identification and location-there is, however, much wider ecological knowledge that can be gained by monitoring wildlife roadkill. Here, we review the added value and opportunities provided by these data, through a series of case studies where such data have been instrumental in contributing to the advancement of knowledge in species distributions, population dynamics, and animal behaviour, as well as informing us about health of the species and of the environment. We propose that consistently, systematically, and extensively monitoring roadkill facilitates five critical areas of ecological study: (1) monitoring of roadkill numbers, (2) monitoring of population trends, (3) mapping of native and invasive species distributions, (4) animal behaviour, and (5) monitoring of contaminants and disease. The collection of such data also offers a valuable opportunity for members of the public to be directly involved in scientific data collection and research (citizen science). Through continuing to monitor wildlife roadkill, we can expand our knowledge across a wide range of ecological research areas, as well as facilitating investigations that aim to reduce both the direct and indirect effects of roads on wildlife populations.

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A review of searcher efficiency and carcass persistence in infrastructure-driven mortality assessment studies

Cited by 74 publications

References 43 publications

Fine-scale determinants of vertebrate roadkills across a biodiversity hotspot in Southern Spain

Fine-scale determinants of vertebrate roadkills across a biodiversity hotspot in Southern Spain

High roadkill rates in the Dong Phayayen‐Khao Yai World Heritage Site: conservation implications of a rising threat to wildlife

The value of monitoring wildlife roadkill

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