On a Collision Course: The Vulnerability of Bats to Roadkills in Brazil

Novaes, Roberto Leonan Morim; Laurindo, Rafael de Souza; Dornas, Rubem A.P.; Esbérard, Carlos Eduardo Lustosa; Bueno, Cecília

doi:10.31687/saremmn.18.25.1.0.11

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…We observed the highest road mortality rates for bats (10.9% of all mortalities) compared to any other study from Asia and the Paleotropics; the second highest reported in Asia being Jeganathan et al (2018), with 0.24% bat mortalities within all vertebrates, and 0.99% for Tanzania, Africa (Kioko et al, 2015). This contradicts most reports of bats as only a small part of mammal roadkills (<3% in most cases; Melo & Santos-Filho, 2007;Santos et al, 2011;Novaes et al, 2018). In our case, after re-including domestic animals for comparative purposes, our study had the highest composition of bat mortality globally based on available published data (with bats accounting for 43.3% of all mammal mortalities, which was still higher than rodents).…”

Section: Taxonomic Compositioncontrasting

confidence: 90%

High roadkill rates in the Dong Phayayen‐Khao Yai World Heritage Site: conservation implications of a rising threat to wildlife

Silva

Crane

Savini

2020

Animal Conservation

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Road networks are increasing globally, and as such incur increased pressure on wildlife communities. Large‐scale road expansion and infrastructure development occurring throughout Asia (i.e. Belt and Road Initiative) will affect hundreds of threatened species, leading to an increase in wildlife‐vehicle collisions. However, only a limited number of studies have quantified road mortality within this threatened landscape. To rectify this, we monitored the spatial‐temporal patterns of vertebrate roadkill in the Dong Phayayen‐Khao Yai forest complex, an UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Thailand, considered a refuge for many globally threatened species. We ran 100 standardized road surveys between 2015 and 2017, on a 47.8‐km highway transect currently being expanded, and recorded a total of 1395 casualties from 124 species. After correcting for removal time and detection probability, we estimated an average of 9688 vertebrate mortalities per year. We observed a mortality peak during the dry season for almost all taxonomic groups, due to a combination of high bird and bat mortality events. All taxa showed significant spatial clustering, highlighting high‐risk road sections. We modelled the road and landscape features most likely to lead to higher mortality rates, disentangling small‐scale (250–500 m from road) from large‐scale effects (1000–2500 m). We recorded lower mortality rates and species diversity near forest sites in protected areas, representing either lower crossing events due to habitat quality or an already depleted environment. Spatial analyses provided information on hotspots and landscape factors, which can be used to inform future mitigations at multiple scales throughout the Southeast Asia region. Our study provides a baseline of the direct road impacts on vertebrate species in a tropical biodiversity hotspot, and we suggest that more studies be conducted to fully assess the direct road effects on the many threatened species in this landscape.

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Section: Taxonomic Compositioncontrasting

confidence: 90%

High roadkill rates in the Dong Phayayen‐Khao Yai World Heritage Site: conservation implications of a rising threat to wildlife

Silva

Crane

Savini

2020

Animal Conservation

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“…Current evidence suggests that roads serve as a substantial source of mortality for many bat species and create barrier effects and fragmented habitats . For example, a recent study from Brazil showed that 44 species (25% of the local fauna) were observed as roadkill, with frugivorous species identified as most vulnerable . Road corridors degrade and fragment habitats, thus creating barriers to movement, and they increase levels of noise, light, and chemical pollution .…”

Section: Major Threats To Batsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, the expansion of road corridors facilitates land conversion in areas that were previously inaccessible and intact. Most of the research on bats and roads has occurred in temperate regions (mostly in Europe) and more research attention is needed on mortality rates and barrier effects of roads in tropical areas …”

Section: Major Threats To Batsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the major threats and challenges to global bat conservation

Frick

Kingston

Flanders

2019

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

419

335

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Bats are an ecologically and taxonomically diverse group accounting for roughly a fifth of mammalian diversity worldwide. Many of the threats bats face (e.g., habitat loss, bushmeat hunting, and climate change) reflect the conservation challenges of our era. However, compared to other mammals and birds, we know significantly less about the population status of most bat species, which makes prioritizing and planning conservation actions challenging. Over a third of bat species assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are considered threatened or data deficient, and well over half of the species have unknown or decreasing population trends. That equals 988 species, or 80% of bats assessed by IUCN, needing conservation or research attention. Delivering conservation to bat species will require sustained efforts to assess population status and trends and address data deficiencies. Successful bat conservation must integrate research and conservation to identify stressors and their solutions and to test the efficacy of actions to stabilize or increase populations. Global and regional networks that connect researchers, conservation practitioners, and local stakeholders to share knowledge, build capacity, and prioritize and coordinate research and conservation efforts, are vital to ensuring sustainable bat populations worldwide.

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“…The species accumulation curve showed an underestimation of species at risk of being be roadkilled along the studied stretch. Besides secondary causes, such as carcass removal (Teixeira et al 2013, desiccation (Pereira et al 2018), and projection of animals upon collision with vehicle (Novaes et al 2018), the first explanation for the underestimation in our data may be related to the short distance sampled and the relatively few field surveys. However, as road-kill represents a sporadic event for most species, even long-term studies or monitoring over longer stretches may neglect some potential at-risk taxa (Bager & Rosa 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…These two characteristics, combined with man-made structures near the road (which may be attractive for bat species) and the presence of artificial lighting (which attracts insects, main food resource for bats), may explain the greater prevalence of chiropterans in the present study (see Rydell 2006). According to Novaes et al (2018), most publications on wildlife road-kill in Brazil do not report bats, which could give the false idea that roads pose no risk to this group. These same authors believe that, because bats are road-killed during flight, most individuals can be projected off the road, leading to an underestimation of the number of road-killed bats (Secco et al 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal and Spatial Variation of Road-Killed Vertebrates on Br330, Southwest Bahia, Brazil

et al. 2019

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In the present study, we aimed to characterize and quantify the vertebrates road-killed along 12.8 km of the BR-330 highway in southwestern Bahia. The road is surrounded by patches of Atlantic Forest and Caatinga and by human-modified areas. From May/2012 to August/2013, we performed 35 surveys, monitoring 448 km in total. During this period, we registered 146 road-killed individuals belonging to 60 species (35 birds, 15 reptiles, 7 mammals and 3 amphibians). The species most likely to be road-killed in the study area were the toad Rhinella jimi and the snakes Oxyrhopus trigeminus and Sibynomorphus neuwiedi. The Jaccard index showed higher values when compared to the observed richness of road-killed species, which is corroborated by the ten new species recorded during five additional surveys from August/2015 to July/2016. The number of road-killed vertebrates was significantly higher in the rainy season than in the dry season. We identified 26 road-kill hotspots along the studied stretch of road. The presence of water bodies associated with vegetational landscape surrounding these hotspots may be a reason for the higher concentration of road-kills. Besides being one of the few studies conducted in an ecotonal area in the northeast of Brazil, our data indicate some important patterns that should be considered for regional and national policies on impact mitigation.

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On a Collision Course: The Vulnerability of Bats to Roadkills in Brazil

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

High roadkill rates in the Dong Phayayen‐Khao Yai World Heritage Site: conservation implications of a rising threat to wildlife

High roadkill rates in the Dong Phayayen‐Khao Yai World Heritage Site: conservation implications of a rising threat to wildlife

A review of the major threats and challenges to global bat conservation

Seasonal and Spatial Variation of Road-Killed Vertebrates on Br330, Southwest Bahia, Brazil

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