Fast and furious: a look at the death of animals on the highway MS-080, Southwestern Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Several factors, such as hunting and the pet trade, are responsible for the worldwide decline of wildlife populations. In addition, fatal collisions with vehicles on highways have also taken one of the largest tolls. This study aimed to quantify the richness and abundance of vertebrate roadkill along highway MS-080 in Mato Grosso do Sul, Central-West Brazil. We compare the amount of roadkill to the distance between cities, moon phases and the flow of vehicles on the highway. Samples were collected weekly between March and September 2011, totaling 257 individuals, belonging to 32 families and 52 species, resulting in an index of 0.13 individuals hit/km. Birds were the most frequently hit taxa, followed by mammals. The most affected species was Cariama cristata (Cariamidae), followed by Cerdocyon thous (Canidae). The sections of highway closest to cities had the highest number of individual animals killed. Our observations indicate that the density of the vegetation next to the highway positively influences the amount of roadkill.KEYWORDS. Conservation, roads, roadkill, urbanization, habitat fragmentation.RESUMO. Velozes e furiosos: um olhar sobre a morte de animais na rodovia MS-080, centro-oeste do Brasil. Vários fatores são responsáveis pelo declínio da fauna mundial tais como a caça e comércio de animais selvagens. Mas a maior delas tem sido o atropelamento por veículos em rodovias. Este estudo teve como objetivo quantificar a riqueza e abundância de vertebrados atropelados ao longo da rodovia MS-080, em Mato Grosso do Sul, na região Centro-Oeste do Brasil. Além disso, nós relacionamos a quantidade de atropelamentos à distância entre as cidades, as fases da lua e o fluxo de veículos na rodovia. As amostras foram coletadas semanalmente, entre março e setembro de 2011, totalizando 257 animais atropelados, pertencentes a 32 famílias e 52 espécies, resultando em um índice de 0,13 indivíduos atropelados/km. As aves foram as mais frequentemente atropeladas, seguidas pelos mamíferos. As espécies mais afetadas foram Cariama cristata (Cariamidae) e Cerdocyon thous (Canidae). As seções da rodovia mais próximas das cidades apresentaram um maior número de animais mortos. As nossas observações indicam que a densidade da vegetação ao lado da estrada influencia positivamente na quantidade de animais mortos na estrada. PALAVRAS-CHAVE.Conservação, rodovias, atropelamentos de fauna, urbanização, fragmentação de habitat.

Do roadkill aggregations of wild and domestic mammals overlap?

“…Both species are common and adapted to living in disturbed environments, they are omnivorous and even eat dead animals on the road, the same being true for Conepatus semistriatus (Reis et al, 2010). The BR-050 highway presented a roadkill rate of 0.03 wild mammals/km/day which is relevant when compared to other researchers performed in a Cerrado region, 0.01 (Cunha, Moreira, & Silva, 2010;Carvalho, Bordignon, & Shapiro, 2014), 0.02 (Braz & França, 2016); 0.03 (Cáceres et al, 2012;Brum et al, 2018). Anyway, roadkill rates are underestimated and a correction index needs to be calculated in order to try to get more actual numbers (Santos, Carvalho, & Mira, 2011;.…”

<b>Vertebrate road kill survey on a highway in southern Brazil

“…Further studies should identify which stretches present a higher abundance of road kill records, correlating this data with landscape characteristics, cycles of the moon, temperature, car movement patterns (Carvalho et al, 2014) and rainfall rates (Braz & França, 2016). An approach involving landscape ecology and the Geographic Information System could help to explain and identify vulnerable areas in terms of collisions.…”

“…In order to compare results of this survey with other lists available in the literature, we used a quantitative index of road kill vertebrates by traveled kilometer (Carvalho et al, 2014). In order to check for any seasonal differences in the abundance of road killed vertebrate specimens, a Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn's post hoc test was run using BioEstat 5.0 software.…”

“…However, previous and post-monitoring of impacted species before the establishment of the measures is necessary to verify their efficiency (Cunha, Moreira, & Silva, 2010, Ferreira, Ribas, Casella, & Mendes, 2014. Several studies, such as those performed by Camargo, Mazim, and Garcias, (2011), Hartmann, Hartmann, and Martins (2011), Coelho, Teixeira, Colombo, Coelho, and Kindel (2012, Santana (2012), Carvalho, Bordignon, and Shapiro (2014), Secco, Ratton, Castro, Lucas, and Bager (2014) and Deffaci et al (2016) highlight the issue of wildlife road kill in Brazil, reporting which taxa present higher mortality rates. This wide range of publications works both as a warning to authorities and as a source of information for decision-making in the construction and adaptation of highways in Brazil (Teixeira et al, 2016).…”

Contribuição Para O Conhecimento Da Dieta De Corujas (Aves: Strigiformes) No Sul Do Brasil

“…As corujas são vítimas frequentes de atropelamentos (Novelli et al 1988, Carvalho et al 2014, Corrêa et al 2017) ao cruzarem rodovias (Bencke & Bencke 1999, Arnold et al 2019) ou ao tentarem se alimentar de carcaças de outros animais atropelados (Erritzoe et al 2003, Fischer et al 2018. A análise de conteúdos estomacais de aves atropeladas pode fornecer importantes informações sobre a composição de sua alimentação (Ramos et al 2011 (Triplehorn & Johnson 2011, Vieira et al 2015.…”