Roadkills of vertebrate species on two highways through the Atlantic Forest Biosphere Reserve, southern Brazil

Abstract

We assessed the magnitude, composition, and spatial and temporal patterns of road mortality of native vertebrates on two highways in southern Brazil from 18 January 2003 to 26 January 2004. The highways cross remnants of the Atlantic Rainforest, a global biodiversity hotspot, and differ in vehicle traffic and surrounding landscape. We compared the road-kill magnitude and composition of birds, mammals, and reptiles between roads and seasons. We used a modified K statistic to depict the spatial patterns of roadkills of these groups and tested the association between vehicle traffic and road mortality through linear regression. We recorded 869 kills of 92 species. The two roads differed regarding the abundance and composition of roadkills. Reptile road mortality was higher in summer than winter, but all other groups did not show significant difference in the magnitude of mortality between seasons. The composition of killed assemblages differed significantly for some of the taxonomic groups among seasons. We found only one positive association between roadkills and vehicle traffic (reptiles on one of the roads), suggesting that vehicle flow does not explain the road-kill temporal variation on these roads. Total vertebrate, bird, and mammal roadkills showed significant spatial aggregations possibly due to variation in vehicle traffic, highway design, and local landscape condition and arrangement. With expected expansion of the road network, mitigation measures for multi-species assemblages should include habitat protection, soil use regulation, road crossing structures, speed reducers, and campaigns to raise people's awareness about road impacts on wildlife.

Mudanças no Código Florestal e seu impacto na ecologia e diversidade dos mamíferos no Brasil

“…10,no. 4 predação por cães domésticos (Galetti & Sazima 2006), perseguição pela população humana (Baker et al 2008) e atropelamentos em estradas (Coelho et al 2008). Outras não são tolerantes aos distúrbios antrópicos e dependem diretamente das matas ciliares, como é o caso das ariranhas (Rosas et al 2008) e outras espécies aquáticas ou semi-aquáticas.…”

Intentional Snake Road-Kill: A Case Study using Fake Snakes on a Brazilian Road

“…Road-kill monitoring data from different regions of Brazil reveal that snake records are quite common [e.g., [24][25][26][27][28]. Studies developed in other countries warn about the intentionality (by the drivers) of snake road-kills [e.g., 29,30] and the consequent hazards to the persistence of snake populations [23].…”

Priority ranking of road sites for mitigating wildlife roadkill

“…Of these effects, the most studied in recent years is the roadkills of wild animals (Clevenger et al 2003, Taylor & Goldingay 2004, Pinowski 2005, Coelho et al 2008, Gomes et al 2009). Accidents occur because the highway cuts through the habitat of the species, interfering with their natural range of movement and resulting in collisions with vehicles (Coffin 2007).…”

“…Brazilian studies seek to establish mitigation strategies for a large number of species (Coelho et al 2008, GumierCosta & Sperber 2009, Turci & Bernarde 2009), normally involving different classes. Outside Brazil, the majority of publications focus on a specific species (Finder et al 1999, Gomes et al 2009, Roger & Ramp 2009), order (Aresco 2005), or class (Hels & Buchwald 2001).…”

“…Pereira et al (2006) and Novelli et al (1988) studied the distribution of roadkills on each kilometer of highway, whereas Prado et al (2006) and Gumier-Costa & Sperber (2009) divided the highways into stretches of five kilometers or more. Coelho et al (2008) tested the spatial distribution of roadkills, seeking to identify aggregations, without a priori determining the length of the road stretches. All these studies considered only the total richness of species killed on the roads, without focusing on specific taxa.…”