No evidence of a threshold in traffic volume affecting road-kill mortality at a large spatio-temporal scale

Grilo, Clara; Ferreira, Flávio Zanchetta; Revilla, Eloy

doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2015.07.003

Cited by 36 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…It seems so, since roadkill is consistently in the top three most commonly recorded causes of death in hedgehogs (alongside illness and natural predation), which is consistent with the hypothesis that traffic mortality potentially exerts substantial pressure on population dynamics [ 18 , 40 ]. This pressure can be both quick and direct (decline in numbers by death of individual animals), as well as indirect with effects shifted in time (by effecting reproduction, migration rates, and genetic diversity) [ 18 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ]. In this study, the mortality rate during the studied period (March–July) was reduced by over 50%.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Is Wildlife Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic? Lockdown Effect on the Road Mortality of Hedgehogs

Łopucki

Kitowski

Perlińska-Teresiak

et al. 2021

Animals

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Globally, wildlife is affected by unprecedented changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, the lockdown effect on the traffic-related mortality in hedgehogs in an urban area was studied. Comparing the pre-pandemic (2018 and 2019) and pandemic (2020) years, we showed that hedgehog roadkill levels during the lockdown period were over 50% lower (which means a decrease greater than the decrease in road traffic in the same period measured by the number of accidents or the average number of vehicles per day). Based on literature data, we showed that this may mean at least tens of thousands of hedgehogs have survived on a national scale. We report the need to start intensive research on the possible demographic and genetic effects of this unique phenomenon. We also ask how stable the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic will be on wildlife and whether the lockdown (which is an anthropause) may reverse the negative trends in the decline in the number of wild species, including hedgehogs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Is Wildlife Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic? Lockdown Effect on the Road Mortality of Hedgehogs

Łopucki

Kitowski

Perlińska-Teresiak

et al. 2021

Animals

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“…Europe. All paved roads were treated as equivalent in the prediction of roadkill estimates; although roads vary in terms of traffic levels and characteristics, detailed information is not widely available, and there is no scientific consensus regarding how different types of roads and traffic intensity influence roadkill risk (see Bissonette and Kassar 2008;Grilo et al 2015;Sadleir and Linklater 2016). As such, specific predictions based on road characteristics…”

Section: Mapping Roadkill Incidence and Critical Areas For Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roadkill risk and population vulnerability in European birds and mammals

Grilo

Koroleva

Andrášik

et al. 2020

Frontiers in Ecol & Environ

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Roads represent a threat to biodiversity, primarily through increased mortality from collisions with vehicles. Although estimating roadkill rates is an important first step, how roads affect long-term population persistence must also be assessed. We developed a trait-based model to predict roadkill rates for terrestrial bird and mammalian species in Europe and used a generalized population model to estimate their long-term vulnerability to road mortality. We found that ~194 million birds and ~29 million mammals may be killed each year on European roads. The species that were predicted to experience the highest mortality rates due to roads were not necessarily the same as those whose long-term persistence was most vulnerable to road mortality. When evaluating which species or areas could be most affected by road development projects, failure to consider how roadkill affects populations may result in misidentifying appropriate targets for mitigation.

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“…The factors influencing the spatial pattern of predator roadkills have been largely studied in the past decades. These include animal abundance and distribution (Seiler, 2003;Grilo et al, 2009), species behavior (Gomes et al, 2009;Grilo et al, 2009), traffic levels and vehicle speed (Colino-Rabanal et al, 2011), landscape patterns (Carvalho and Mira, 2011;Colino-Rabanal et al, 2011;Grilo et al, 2015), and road and verge characteristics (e.g. Gomes et al, 2009;Barrientos and Bolonio, 2009;Santos et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors influencing predator roadkills: The availability of prey in road verges

Silva

Simões

Santos

2019

Journal of Environmental Management

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A B S T R A C TRoad mortality is the most noticeable effect of roads on wildlife. Road verges may provide important refuges for small mammals and rabbits, particularly when roads cross intensive agricultural or grazed areas. In these circumstances, the increasing use of verges by prey species may attract predators to road surroundings increasing the risk of roadkill. The aim of this study was to quantify the role of prey availability (small mammals and rabbits) on predator road casualties, taking into account road and surrounding landscape characteristics. We analyzed this effect on different predator species, such as, snakes, owls and mammal carnivores. The study took place in a 10 km stretch of a National Road (EN4) in southern Portugal. Relationships among predator mortality and explanatory variables (prey abundance, landscape characteristics, and road verge features) were evaluated using Multivariate Redundancy Analysis (RDA) followed by a variation partitioning. Our results show that, although landscape features explained most of the mortality variation, the prey availability was also very important. Roadkills of Montpellier snake and Egyptian mongoose are strongly associated with wild rabbit abundance on verges, while mortality of stone marten, barn owl and tawny owl is related with wood mouse abundance, Mediterranean forest (montado) density, and verge shrub density. Implications for verge management and implementation of mitigation actions are discussed. We suggest vegetation removal in verges to decrease shelter and food availability for prey, and/or the promotion of habitat for prey in areas distant from roads.

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No evidence of a threshold in traffic volume affecting road-kill mortality at a large spatio-temporal scale

Cited by 36 publications

References 26 publications

How Is Wildlife Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic? Lockdown Effect on the Road Mortality of Hedgehogs

How Is Wildlife Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic? Lockdown Effect on the Road Mortality of Hedgehogs

Roadkill risk and population vulnerability in European birds and mammals

Factors influencing predator roadkills: The availability of prey in road verges

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