Mortality from collision with vehicles is the most visible impact of road traffic on wildlife. Mortality due to roads (hereafter road-kill) can affect the dynamic of populations of many species and can, therefore, increase the risk of local decline or extinction. This is especially true in Brazil, where plans for road network upgrading and expansion overlaps biodiversity hotspot areas, which are of high importance for global conservation. Researchers, conservationists and road planners face the challenge to define a national strategy for road mitigation and wildlife conservation. The main goal of this dataset is a compilation of geo-referenced road-kill data from published and unpublished road surveys. This is the first Data Paper in the BRAZIL series (see ATLANTIC, NEOTROPICAL, and BRAZIL collections of Data Papers published in Ecology), which aims make public road-kill data for species in the Brazilian Regions. The dataset encompasses road-kill records from 45 personal communications and 26 studies published in peer-reviewed journals, theses and reports. The road-kill dataset comprises 21,512 records, 83% of which are identified to the species level (n = 450 species). The dataset includes records of 31 amphibian species, 90 reptile species, 229 bird species, and 99 mammal species. One species is classified as Endangered, eight as Vulnerable and twelve as Near Threatened. The species with the highest number of records are: Didelphis albiventris (n = 1,549), Volatinia jacarina (n = 1,238), Cerdocyon thous (n = 1,135), Helicops infrataeniatus (n = 802), and Rhinella icterica (n = 692). Most of the records came from southern Brazil. However, observations of the road-kill incidence for non-Least Concern species are more spread across the country. This dataset can be used to identify which taxa seems to be vulnerable to traffic, analyze temporal and spatial patterns of road-kill at local, regional and national scales and also used to understand the effects of road-kill on population persistence. It may also contribute to studies that aims to understand the influence of landscape and environmental influences on road-kills, improve our knowledge on road-related strategies on biodiversity conservation and be used as complementary information on large-scale and macroecological studies. No copyright or proprietary restrictions are associated with the use of this data set other than citation of this Data Paper.

ABSTRACT:Researches on roadkill aggregations are important tools for wildlife conservation. The objective of this study was to determine wild vertebrate roadkill aggregations on a stretch of 96 kilometers of the BR-050 highway, between the cities of Uberlândia and Uberaba, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The survey was conducted between April 2012 and March 2013. Roadkill monitoring was performed by car, at a speed of approximately 60 km/h, and forty two (42) weekly trips, totaling 8064 km, were performed. The 2D Ripley's K-Statistics test from the Siriema v1.1 program was used to detect the scales of roadkill aggregations and 2D HotSpot Identification test was used to identify the location of these hotspots. Aggregations extended from the following kms: 14 to 33, 38, 41 to 51, 66 to 70 and 78 to 94. We found roadkill aggregations for wild vertebrates and mammals. The roadkill aggregations were significant for Euphractus sexcinctus, Conepatus semistriatus, Procyon cancrivorus, Hydrochoerus hydrochoerus, Cariama cristata, Boa constrictor amarali and Crotalus durissus collilineatus according to the taxonomic specific level. Thus, it is suggested that mitigation measures for vertebrate conservation must be implemented in the indicated areas.

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.

RESUMO O tamanduá-bandeira (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) e o tamanduá-mirim (Tamandua tetradactyla) são mamíferos xenartros amplamente distribuídos no território nacional. Apesar disso, suas populações estão em constante ameaça, principalmente o primeiro, categorizado como vulnerável de acordo com classificação da União Internacional para Conservação da Natureza. Diante disso e da escassez de estudos com endoparasitas nesses animais, objetivou-se descrever a helmintofauna dessas duas espécies de tamanduá, utilizando espécimes atropelados nas rodovias BR-050 e BR-455, região do Triângulo Mineiro, Minas Gerais, Brasil. Os animais foram submetidos à necropsia, tendo seus órgãos e conteúdo intestinal e estomacal examinados para recuperação de helmintos. Os parasitos coletados foram identificados com base em suas características morfológicas e morfométricas. As espécies/os gêneros caracterizados para M. tridactyla e T. tetradactyla, suas respectivas prevalências, bem como órgãos de origem, foram: Gaphidiops dissimilis (33,33% e 0%) no estômago; Gigantorhynchus echinodiscus (25% e 66,66%) no intestino delgado; Physaloptera magnipapilla (50% e 66,6%) no estômago; e Mathevotaenia spp. (25% e 66,66%) no intestino delgado. Physaloptera magnipapilla foi a espécie com os maiores índices de infecção, e novo registro de localização foi registrado para o nematódeo Graphidiops dissimilis. Detectou-se uma provável sobreposição da área de vida dos tamanduás estudados, bem como uma helmintofauna característica da região.

Domestic animals are involved in a large number of traffic accidents and they represent danger to humans due to their size. Despite this, few studies consider domestic animals. That is why we evaluate mammals’ roadkill aggregations in order to locate them and to determine if wild and domestic mammals’ roadkills overlap. In addition, we investigate the influence of the landscape on the location of the aggregations. This study was carried out on the BR-050 highway, an area of Cerrado biome, in Southeastern Brazil. The monitoring was executed from April 2012 to March 2013, by car, at an average speed of 60 km/h, with two observers looking for roadkills on the highway. We found 482 mammals’ roadkills, including 260 (54 %) wild mammals, 164 (34 %) domestic and 58 (12.0 %) undetermined specimens. Of the 21 recorded mammal species, five were domestic. The wild mammals’ roadkill rate was 0.03 (± 0.02) individuals/km/day and the domestic roadkill rate was 0.02 (± 0.01). We detected roadkill aggregations for wild and domestic mammals. Roadkill hotspots of domestic mammals and wild mammals did not overlap. The variables that had the highest influence on wild mammals’ roadkill probability were: agriculture and silviculture cover as positive effects and distance to the nearest river, to the urban perimeter and to a natural fragment as negative effects. For domestic mammals these variables were: area of the smallest fragment and distance to a natural fragment as positive effects and silviculture cover as a negative effect. The explanation for the wild and domestic mammals’ roadkill hotspot non overlapping seems to be the effect of each variable in determining the roadkill hotspot since their effect is different for wild and domestic mammals. On the other hand, this non overlapping can be a result of domestic mammals’ scavenging habits. We propose different kinds of mitigation measures in order to reduce domestic and wild mammals’ roadkill.