Carcass permanency time and its implications to the roadkill data

Ratton, Pedro; Secco, Helio; Rosa, Clarissa Alves da

doi:10.1007/s10344-014-0798-z

Cited by 38 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Grass snakes can be found in the reed belt of the lake Neusiedl in high numbers matched by the CORINE land cover class Inland marshes [37]. We monitored the study route on average every 11 days and might have underestimated the number of road-kills as the persistence time of carcasses could be lower [28, 51]. Notwithstanding this limitation, our current results are in line with previous studies.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Amphibian and reptile road-kills on tertiary roads in relation to landscape structure: using a citizen science approach with open-access land cover data

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundAmphibians and reptiles are among the most endangered vertebrate species worldwide. However, little is known how they are affected by road-kills on tertiary roads and whether the surrounding landscape structure can explain road-kill patterns. The aim of our study was to examine the applicability of open-access remote sensing data for a large-scale citizen science approach to describe spatial patterns of road-killed amphibians and reptiles on tertiary roads. Using a citizen science app we monitored road-kills of amphibians and reptiles along 97.5 km of tertiary roads covering agricultural, municipal and interurban roads as well as cycling paths in eastern Austria over two seasons. Surrounding landscape was assessed using open access land cover classes for the region (Coordination of Information on the Environment, CORINE). Hotspot analysis was performed using kernel density estimation (KDE+). Relations between land cover classes and amphibian and reptile road-kills were analysed with conditional probabilities and general linear models (GLM). We also estimated the potential cost-efficiency of a large scale citizen science monitoring project.ResultsWe recorded 180 amphibian and 72 reptile road-kills comprising eight species mainly occurring on agricultural roads. KDE+ analyses revealed a significant clustering of road-killed amphibians and reptiles, which is an important information for authorities aiming to mitigate road-kills. Overall, hotspots of amphibian and reptile road-kills were next to the land cover classes arable land, suburban areas and vineyards. Conditional probabilities and GLMs identified road-kills especially next to preferred habitats of green toad, common toad and grass snake, the most often found road-killed species. A citizen science approach appeared to be more cost-efficient than monitoring by professional researchers only when more than 400 km of road are monitored.ConclusionsOur findings showed that freely available remote sensing data in combination with a citizen science approach would be a cost-efficient method aiming to identify and monitor road-kill hotspots of amphibians and reptiles on a larger scale.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Amphibian and reptile road-kills on tertiary roads in relation to landscape structure: using a citizen science approach with open-access land cover data

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Since the surveys were dependent on the technical staff of the local road agency, carcass monitoring could not be performed for more days. However, 5-year data from 484 roadkill surveys in the same roads (5,164 road-killed animals recorded) showed that 60% of carcasses weight less than 100g [43] and, thus, are unlikely to persist on the road for more than three days [17, 19, 26, 44, 45]. …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carcass Persistence and Detectability: Reducing the Uncertainty Surrounding Wildlife-Vehicle Collision Surveys

Santos

Santos‐Reis

et al. 2016

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Carcass persistence time and detectability are two main sources of uncertainty on roadkill surveys. In this study, we evaluate the influence of these uncertainties on roadkill surveys and estimates. To estimate carcass persistence time, three observers (including the driver) surveyed 114km by car on a monthly basis for two years, searching for wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC). Each survey consisted of five consecutive days. To estimate carcass detectability, we randomly selected stretches of 500m to be also surveyed on foot by two other observers (total 292 walked stretches, 146 km walked). We expected that body size of the carcass, road type, presence of scavengers and weather conditions to be the main drivers influencing the carcass persistence times, but their relative importance was unknown. We also expected detectability to be highly dependent on body size. Overall, we recorded low median persistence times (one day) and low detectability (<10%) for all vertebrates. The results indicate that body size and landscape cover (as a surrogate of scavengers’ presence) are the major drivers of carcass persistence. Detectability was lower for animals with body mass less than 100g when compared to carcass with higher body mass. We estimated that our recorded mortality rates underestimated actual values of mortality by 2–10 fold. Although persistence times were similar to previous studies, the detectability rates here described are very different from previous studies. The results suggest that detectability is the main source of bias across WVC studies. Therefore, more than persistence times, studies should carefully account for differing detectability when comparing WVC studies.

show abstract

“…All bat species are smaller in comparison to other commonly recorded mammal species, which implies an accelerated removal rate of their carcasses in the lane (Santos et al 2011). Small animals usually end up having a low permanence time on the road due to the action of scavengers (common in the region of the study area), natural decomposition, influence of rains and of the constant vehicular traffic (Slater 2002, Ratton et al 2014). In addition, the observer detectability during monitoring can be improved to some degree, but it is also inevitably limited by the carcasses size, which leads to underestimates bats and other small animals (Teixeira et al 2013b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Road and Landscape Features That Affect Bat Roadkills in Southeastern Brazil

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The most studied impact on road ecology is roadkill, however, there is little information about the relations between highways and specific groups like bats. This study intended to identify the species of bats roadkilled and to evaluate the existence of temporal fluctuation between the roadkill rates, specific stretches of the road with higher rates, and characteristics of the road/landscape that may influence those rates. We encountered at least nine bat species among 65 roadkills (most Phyllostomidae), which comprise a subgroup of the local fauna that presents ecologic features that make them susceptible to being hit, especially Artibeus lituratus. The medium roadkill rate was of 0.01 individuals/km/day of monitoring, and there was no significant temporal variation. We identified five hotspots through special 2D HotSpot Identification Analysis. The selection of theoretical models through Generalized Linear Models showed that roadkill occurrence has a positive relation with vehicular traffic and negative relation with presence of marginal pasture and forests. As the major part of records was of species that are tolerant to human-disturbances, the increase in traffic consequently affected a higher number of bats capable to explore the area occupied by the road. The presence of native forest close to the road can lead to a decrease of animals hit by vehicles, once it offers more resources and favorable habitats, which reduces the need for bats to cross the roads for foraging. On the other hand, many species that necessarily depend on areas sheltered by trees for shelter, and do not possess the ability to fly long distances do not occur in open areas such as pastures. In this context, we suggest that the main measure of mitigation regard bat species would be the traffic control through speed limit, especially on the roadkill hotspots areas.

show abstract

Carcass permanency time and its implications to the roadkill data

Cited by 38 publications

References 13 publications

Amphibian and reptile road-kills on tertiary roads in relation to landscape structure: using a citizen science approach with open-access land cover data

Amphibian and reptile road-kills on tertiary roads in relation to landscape structure: using a citizen science approach with open-access land cover data

Carcass Persistence and Detectability: Reducing the Uncertainty Surrounding Wildlife-Vehicle Collision Surveys

Road and Landscape Features That Affect Bat Roadkills in Southeastern Brazil

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About