Vertebrate road-kill patterns in Mediterranean habitats: Who, when and where

D’Amico, Marcello; Román, Jacinto; Reyes, L. de los; Revilla, Eloy

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2015.06.010

Cited by 152 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…The reason as to why amphibians in general appear to be more vulnerable to wildlife-vehicle collisions than other taxa has been related to their ecology and life history. Three studies confirmed that road mortality of amphibians peaked as they attempted to cross roads during their migration in the spring from terrestrial hibernacula to aquatic breeding habitats [11,12,14]. These studies recommended that mitigation could be implemented during this seasonal activity period in order to reduce amphibian road-mortality rates; however, a study conducted on Fowler's toad (Anaxyrus fowleri) cautioned that road mortality may not always be limited to seasonal migrations [15].…”

Section: Direct Impacts Of Roads On Wildlifementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Road Density and Pattern on the Conservation of Species and Biodiversity

Bennett

2017

Curr Landscape Ecol Rep

129

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The development and presence of roads can reduce landscape permeability, lead to habitat loss, and increase habitat fragmentation. It is these fundamental changes in landscape structure that can have both direct and indirect impacts on the conservation of species and biodiversity. In this review, I examine 215 research studies conducted between 2011 and 2015 that explore the impacts of roads and road networks on a wide range of species. I divided these studies into four main categories: 1) the direct effects of roads on wildlife, 2) the indirect effects of roads on wildlife, 3) the consequences of road networks on wildlife populations, and 4) survey design and mitigation including both innovations and evaluations. I found that the majority of studies (38%) explored the indirect effects of roads on wildlife, including displacement, fitness consequences, and road crossing ability of wildlife. Nevertheless, despite there being a pressing need to understand how existing road networks impact wildlife and how increasing road density may influence local and regional population persistence, only 10% of the studies considered the implications of road networks on wildlife. However, there is an increasing trend towards the development of predictive models that can be used for a better understanding of road network impacts, assess landscape connectivity, and devise mitigation. This review also highlighted the continued need to devise and evaluate mitigation measures so transportation authorities and conservation practitioners may be better equipped to address the ecological implications of roads and proposed road development.

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Section: Direct Impacts Of Roads On Wildlifementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Road Density and Pattern on the Conservation of Species and Biodiversity

Bennett

2017

Curr Landscape Ecol Rep

129

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“…Studies about fauna roadkill have been highlighted worldwide (FORMAN;ALEXANDER, 1998;COELHO et al, 2008;GRILO et al, 2010;D'AMICO et al, 2015;TEIXEIRA et al, 2017). In Brazil, Road Ecology have had a rapid growth since 2004(BAGER et al, 2015.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Europe, USA and Canada some studies tried to understand this (CLEVENGER et al, 2003;GRILO et al, 2009;GRILO et al, 2012;D'AMICO et al, 2015;GARRIGA et al, 2017) and concluded that temperature influences roadkill (D'AMICO et al, 2015;GARRIGA et al, 2017). In Brazil, we have just started, our researches investigate if there are more roadkill in the rainy or dry season (BUENO; ALMEIDA, 2010;RAMOS et al, 2011;BRAZ;FRANÇA, 2016) or the stretches of the highway with higher roadkill rates (CÁCERES et al, 2012;BUENO et al, 2012;SANTANA, 2012;FERREIRA et al, 2014;CARVALHO et al, 2015;ASCENSÃO et al, 2017;SANTOS et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of climate variables on roadkill rates of wild vertebrates in the cerrado biome, Brazil

Carvalho-Roel¹,

Custódio²,

Júnior³

2017

Biosci. J.

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ABSTRACT:Wildlife road killing is a problem for animal conservation in the world. In order to mitigate this problem, it is necessary to understand the factors that affect it, like seasonality and climatic variables. The objective of the study was to evaluate the influence of climatic variables (mean temperature, relative air humidity and accumulated precipitation), seasonality and average daily traffic (ADT) on vertebrate roadkill rates in an area of Cerrado biome, Brazil. The study area is a stretch of 96 km of the highway BR-050, a four-lane road, between the cities of Uberlândia and Uberaba, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. This area is characterized by intense fragmentation of natural areas, with few remnants of Cerrado biome. The climate has two very defined seasons, a warm and rainy summer and a very dry winter. We analyzed data from roadkill monitoring carried out from April 2012 to March 2013. The road was monitored weekly by car at an average speed of 60 km/h, by two observers, totaling 8,064 km surveyed. The highest roadkill rates for reptiles were recorded in the rainy season, for the other groups (mammals and birds) no difference was found. We also checked seasonality for the most abundant species: the highest number of roadkills was found in the rainy season for the common boa (Boa constrictor amarali) and for the six-banded armadillo (Euphractus sexcinctus). For the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous), crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus), striped hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus semistriatus) and red-legged seriema (Cariama cristata) we found no difference. The humidity and accumulated precipitation positively influenced the reptile roadkill rate. As expected, the same result was found for Boa constrictor amarali. Mammal roadkill rate increases with accumulated precipitation, on the other hand, Euphractus sexcinctus roadkill rate increases with temperature. Birds are not affected by climate variables, nevertheless, Cariama cristata roadkill rate decreases as humidity increases. Contrary to expectations, ADT had no influence on roadkill rates. These results show that it is necessary to investigate the influence of possible descriptor variables on mammals, birds and reptiles separately and not for all vertebrates as a group. Furthermore, certain species may even present different temporal patterns.

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“…Early road ecology research used roadkill to monitor changes in population (e.g., Baker et al, 2004), focused on emblematic species (e.g., Hobday and Minstrell, 2008) or examined spatial and temporal patterns in the distribution of roadkill (e.g., Taylor and Goldingay, 2004;Ramp et al, 2005). Many of these studies relied on road surveys conducted at regular intervals by trained observers (Barthelmess and Brooks, 2010;D'Amico et al, 2015b). Despite providing high quality data, these methods are costly in terms of both time and logistics and can thus only be applied to relatively small areas (Caro et al, 2000;Barthelmess and Brooks, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Value of Citizen Science for Roadkill Studies: A Case Study from South Africa

et al. 2018

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Roads impact wildlife through a range of mechanisms from habitat loss and decreased landscape connectivity to direct mortality through wildlife-vehicle collisions (roadkill). These collisions have been rated amongst the highest modern risks to wildlife. With the development of "citizen science" projects, in which members of the public participate in data collection, it is now possible to monitor the impacts of roads over scales far beyond the limit of traditional studies. However, the reliability of data provided by citizen scientists for roadkill studies remains largely untested. This study used a dataset of 2,666 roadkill reports on national and regional roads in South Africa (total length ∼170,000 km) over 3 years. We first compared roadkill data collected from trained road patrols operating on a major highway with data submitted by citizen scientists on the same road section (431 km). We found that despite minor differences, the broad spatial and taxonomic patterns were similar between trained reporters and untrained citizen scientists. We then compared data provided by two groups of citizen scientists across South Africa: (1) those working in the zoology/conservation sector (that we have termed "regular observers," whose reports were considered to be more accurate due to their knowledge and experience), and (2) occasional observers, whose reports required verification by an expert. Again, there were few differences between the type of roadkill report provided by regular and occasional reporters; both types identified the same area (or cluster) where roadkill was reported most frequently. However, occasional observers tended to report charismatic and easily identifiable species more often than road patrols or regular observers. We conclude that citizen scientists can provide reliable data for roadkill studies when it comes to identifying general patterns and high-risk areas. Thus, citizen science has the potential to be a valuable tool for identifying potential roadkill hotspots and at-risk species across large spatial and temporal scales that are otherwise impractical and expensive when using standard data collection methodologies. This tool allows researchers to extract data and focus their efforts on potential areas and species of concern, with the ultimate goal of implementing effective roadkill-reduction measures.

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Vertebrate road-kill patterns in Mediterranean habitats: Who, when and where

Cited by 152 publications

References 58 publications

Effects of Road Density and Pattern on the Conservation of Species and Biodiversity

Effects of Road Density and Pattern on the Conservation of Species and Biodiversity

Influence of climate variables on roadkill rates of wild vertebrates in the cerrado biome, Brazil

Testing the Value of Citizen Science for Roadkill Studies: A Case Study from South Africa

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