Individual Spatial Responses towards Roads: Implications for Mortality Risk

Grilo, Clara; Sousa, Joana; Ascensão, Fernando; Matos, Hugo M.; Leitão, Inês; Pinheiro, Paulo; Costa, M. C. Nascimento; Bernardo, J.; Reto, Dyana; Lourenço, Rui; Santos‐Reis, Margarida; Revilla, Eloy

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0043811

Cited by 81 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…We assume that martens F1, F2 and F3 were residents with well-established territories since they were tracked for long periods, having stable home range areas [15], and F1 and F3 were apparently aware of passage locations for crossings. The movement of these two martens was not hindered by the presence of the highway probably because they knew where to access suitable crossing structures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the choice of mitigation strategy to apply often relies on general patterns, for example road-kill clusters or movement responses [15]–[17], on the basis that these patterns provide information on the average response of species to roads and traffic. Hence, if individuals vary widely in their responses to roads or mitigation actions and mitigation efforts are directed toward population-level average responses, these efforts may be only partially effective [18]–[20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We reanalyzed the tracking data of seven stone martens ( Martes foina , hereafter referred to as ‘marten’) previously described by [15]. To our knowledge, this is the only available carnivore tracking dataset from a study area that also contains data on road-kill [28] and passage use [33] patterns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inter-Individual Variability of Stone Marten Behavioral Responses to a Highway

et al. 2014

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Efforts to reduce the negative impacts of roads on wildlife may be hindered if individuals within the population vary widely in their responses to roads and mitigation strategies ignore this variability. This knowledge is particularly important for medium-sized carnivores as they are vulnerable to road mortality, while also known to use available road passages (e.g., drainage culverts) for safely crossing highways. Our goal in this study was to assess whether this apparently contradictory pattern of high road-kill numbers associated with a regular use of road passages is attributable to the variation in behavioral responses toward the highway between individuals. We investigated the responses of seven radio-tracked stone martens (Martes foina) to a highway by measuring their utilization distribution, response turning angles and highway crossing patterns. We compared the observed responses to simulated movement parameterized by the observed space use and movement characteristics of each individual, but naïve to the presence of the highway. Our results suggested that martens demonstrate a diversity of responses to the highway, including attraction, indifference, or avoidance. Martens also varied in their highway crossing patterns, with some crossing repeatedly at the same location (often coincident with highway passages). We suspect that the response variability derives from the individual's familiarity of the landscape, including their awareness of highway passage locations. Because of these variable yet potentially attributable responses, we support the use of exclusionary fencing to guide transient (e.g., dispersers) individuals to existing passages to reduce the road-kill risk.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inter-Individual Variability of Stone Marten Behavioral Responses to a Highway

et al. 2014

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“…In fact, many of the research studies undertaken on road mortality tended to explore the differences between and within species with the intention of informing more targeted mitigation. For instance, studies considered in this review found that a variety of species-associated factors influenced the rate of wildlife-vehicle collisions, such as age (particularly dispersing juveniles; [19][20][21][22][23]), activity patterns (such as nocturnal and migratory activities; [6,7,24,25]), season (primarily breeding season; [12,[26][27][28][29]), gender (such as males ranging further in the breeding season in search a mate; [23,26,[30][31][32]), diet preferences (e.g., one study found that omnivorous mammals and herbivorous birds were most vulnerable; [33]), mobility (including low-flying species; [15,21,34,35]), behavioral responses (e.g., certain species do not respond to oncoming traffic; [15,36]), and home range size (i.e., the larger the home range the higher the probability of crossing a road; [37]). Another study found that species that were more inconspicuous on the roads were more vulnerable to wildlife-vehicle collisions [38].…”

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

137

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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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“…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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Individual Spatial Responses towards Roads: Implications for Mortality Risk

Cited by 81 publications

References 51 publications

Inter-Individual Variability of Stone Marten Behavioral Responses to a Highway

Inter-Individual Variability of Stone Marten Behavioral Responses to a Highway

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

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