Roadkill patterns in Latin American birds and mammals

Abstract

Aim: Roads are a major threat for wildlife, degrading habitat and causing mortality via wildlife-vehicle collisions. In Latin America, the conjunction of high biodiversity and a rapidly expanding road network is reason for concern. We introduce an approach that combines species traits and habitat preferences to describe vulnerability and map areas of high roadkill risk. Thus, we present the first assessment of roadkill impacts for Latin American birds and mammals.

Research and conservation priorities to protect wildlife from collisions with vehicles

“…The Latin America and Caribbean region is home to more than 4600 birds and 1800 mammals (IUCN, 2021), yet estimates of mortality caused by collisions with vehicles are available for <10% of species (Medrano-Vizcaíno et al, 2022). This means that the magnitude of how roads impact wildlife is likely underestimated.…”

“…Using predicted roadkill rates from Medrano-Vizcaíno et al, (2022) and the IUCN Red List categories (IUCN, 2021) we calculated several metrics for each taxonomic order of birds and mammals including: the total number and percentage of species reported as roadkill, the number and percentage of species classified as Threatened (Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable), Data Deficient, and Not Threatened (Near Threatened and Least Concern) by the IUCN Red List (IUCN, 2021). We also calculated the average predicted roadkill rate for each order as the median across of all predicted roadkill rates for species in that group.…”

“…Road impacts threaten Latin-American wildlife, but assessments are still rare with few, albeit rising, road ecology studies (Pinto et al, 2020). This makes Latin America an ideal case study to test the proposed approach capitalizing on existing spatially-explicit roadkill rates predicted for bird and mammal species known to suffer mortality from collisions (obtained from Medrano-Vizcaíno et al, (2022)). These data, combined with information on road network and species conservation status offer a way to identify priority areas and taxa for conservation and research.…”

“…Roads are one of the main anthropogenic causes of wildlife mortality worldwide (Hill et al, 2019), and the primary cause in some regions (Taylor-Brown et al, 2019). For example, an estimated 194 million birds and 29 million mammals are killed in European roads, 340 million birds in the United States, and twelve million birds and five million mammals in Latin America (Grilo et al, 2020; Loss et al, 2014; Medrano-Vizcaíno et al, 2022).…”

The road of &gt;1000 corpses: landscape and road-related features that promote mortality in the Amazon

“…Conducting local studies is essential to better understand how species' traits and their habitat preferences, the natural and anthropogenic features of the landscape, the con guration of roads, and driver behaviour in uence the incidence of road mortality and therefore guide future work and mitigation measures (Van Der Ree et al 2015). For example, in Latin America, generalists, and short-lived birds and mammals with faster reproductive rates and living at higher population densities have been found to be more vulnerable to road mortality in general but distribution of these species varies regionally (Medrano-Vizcaíno et al 2022). Road mortality has also been linked to neighboring habitat with distinct effects across vertebrate groups.…”