Effect of vehicular traffic on wild animals in Sigur Plateau, Tamil Nadu, India

Samson, A.; Ramakrishnan, B.; Veeramani, A.; Santhoshkumar, P.; Karthick, S.; Sivasubramanian, Geetha; Ilakkia, M.; Chitheena, A.; Princy, J. Leona; Ravi, Praveen

doi:10.11609/jott.1962.8.9.9182-9189

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…In the Durrah and Ramgarh, snakes and lizards were the main reptilian victims, and even though the number was small (a mean of two per month) the cumulative effect was significant for rare species (Nagar, Meena, & Dube, 2013). A similar result was found in Mudumalai: reptiles were the most affected vertebrates, followed by mammals (Samson et al, 2016).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 83%

Road kills in tropical ecosystems: a review with recommendations for mitigation and for new research

Mónge-Nájera

2018

RBT

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While roads are indispensable for modern civilization and beneficial for many wildlife species, they have been causing mortality from collisions since high speed chariots were invented 4 000 years ago. Most scientific work about road kill has been done in temperate ecosystems, but some authors have suspected that they have different characteristics in tropical ecosystems. In this review, I summarize publications that focus on road kills in tropical countries from Africa, America, Asia and Oceania. I found 73 studies that focus on tropical road kills. Output increased after 2011 and the most productive countries, in articles per capita, are Costa Rica, Colombia and Brazil. Most studies report that mammals are the main victims, but bird deaths are severely underestimated and amphibians suffer mass mortality in reproductive concentrations. Every road victim is itself a small ecosystem that contains thousands of microscopic species, but “Road Kill Microbiology” is yet to be developed as a new branch of research. No generalization can be made about the role of season or habitat in road kills because pooled data hide individual trends: researchers should keep separate records by age, sex, species, time of day, season and place; otherwise important patterns will be missed. There is not a single study, tropical or temperate, that can completely answer how many animals are killed, where, or when, because many victims are removed by scavengers, end outside the road or are too small to be noticed. Significant contributions from the tropics include emphasis on the ethical use of road kill for research, inclusion of species other than wild vertebrates, study of often overlooked phenomena like hour of day and failed versus successful crossing attempts, and the value of speed control in mitigation. The so-called “citizen science” can identify the most affected species but produces data that are very different from those generated by professional scientists in terms of the proportion of affected groups. Real speed limitation is the simplest effective mitigation measure. Tropical scientists should concentrate on monitoring and experimental studies to fully understand the ecology of road kills and to make a contribution that matches what rich countries do. Rev. Biol. Trop. 66(2): 722-738. Epub 2018 June 01.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 83%

Road kills in tropical ecosystems: a review with recommendations for mitigation and for new research

Mónge-Nájera

2018

RBT

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“…The roads that cross parks and forest reserves can have an extremely negative impact, a barrier to the natural movement of the species, and establishing a population decline, as well as decreasing the genetic flow for the wildlife of these regions (Samson et al 2016). Critically, bat collisions with vehicles have been observed mainly in these areas where endangered and endemic bat species occur (Lesiński 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal distribution of bat mortality on a highway in southeast Brazil

Oliveira

Bueno

2022

Therya

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Roads and highways can work as barriers to the movement of many species, thereby preventing the individuals from accessing feeding and reproduction sites and the immediate risk of colliding wild species with vehicles. Identifying the impacts of roads on wildlife can contribute to the establishment of actions that promote conservation. In Brazil, data on collisions between bats and vehicles are scarce and underestimated in the literature. We described bat roadkill from 2008 to 2019 on a stretch of the BR-040 highway, which crosses an area of Atlantic Forest. Roadkill species were identified and the sites with high collision frequencies were characterized. A total of 923 individuals of 57 species and five families of chiropterans were identified. Frugivore bats showed the largest number of affected individuals, with Artibeus lituratus, a common species in the study region, with the highest number of roadkills. The diet and foraging behaviour were the most likely factors explaining most of the bats killed on the highway. The highest roadkill rate was documented in the fall, and the critical points located nearby the APA Petrópolis and REBIO of Tinguá, environmental protection areas. We reinforce the need to mitigate these roadkills, ensuring that road systems, which constitute municipal, state and federal highways, are built to prevent major disturbance of habitat and displacement routes of these species. We believe in the need for mitigations, and considering the various species involved, we suggest speed bumps construction reducing the speed limit, installing bridges, and signaling the presence of wildlife, before the stretches identified as hotspots.

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“…Moreover, past records of the distribution of this snake were only in the Eastern Ghats regions of southern India. The Sigur Plateau is the connective junction of the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats region (Samson et al 2016); therefore this species extends its distribution to the Western Ghats landscape also. Our record is important because it not only significantly extends the range from earlier records (Image 2) but it is also the first report of this species from the Nilgiri Landscape.…”

Section: Record Of Platyceps Bholanathi In Nilgiris Landscapementioning

confidence: 99%

<b>New distribution record of Nagarjunasagar Racer <I>Platyceps bholanathi</I> (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae) in Sigur, Nilgiris landscape, India</b>

Samson¹,

Santhoshkumar²,

Ramakrishnan³

et al. 2017

J. Threat. Taxa

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On 3 September 2016 at 15.30hr, we came across a dead snake on a rock in the Sigur (11.5312700N & 76.7697310E, elevation 945m) a rain-shadow area in the Nilgiris landscape, Tamil Nadu, India. This specimen is confirmed to be Platyceps bholanathi following major key characters with available literature. Our record is important because it not only significantly extends the range from earlier records but it is also the first report of this species from the Nilgiri Landscape. We believe that our present note will encourage further studies on this group.

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Effect of vehicular traffic on wild animals in Sigur Plateau, Tamil Nadu, India

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Road kills in tropical ecosystems: a review with recommendations for mitigation and for new research

Road kills in tropical ecosystems: a review with recommendations for mitigation and for new research

Spatial and temporal distribution of bat mortality on a highway in southeast Brazil

<b>New distribution record of Nagarjunasagar Racer <I>Platyceps bholanathi</I> (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae) in Sigur, Nilgiris landscape, India</b>

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