Wildlife road traffic accidents: a standardized protocol for counting flattened fauna

Collinson, Wendy; Parker, Daniel M.; Bernard, R. T. F.; Reilly, Brian K.; Davies‐Mostert, Harriet T.

doi:10.1002/ece3.1097

Cited by 56 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(141 reference statements)

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“…Transects were conducted on the N3 highway from Johannesburg to Durban along a total length of 431 km, driven four times a day every day (twice in each direction); teams were allocated to six shorter sections to ensure the whole distance was covered effectively. Once discovered, carcasses were removed from the road to avoid recounts (Collinson et al, 2014;Guinard et al, 2015). Road patrols took place from July 2011 to November 2014.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies have tried to identify and quantify bias in roadkill data collection (e.g., Slater, 2002;Santos et al, 2011) or develop standardized recording methods (e.g., Collinson et al, 2014), but to our knowledge none has tested the capacity of data from citizen science surveys to provide reliable roadkill data. In this study, we assessed the potential value of citizen science data for roadkill studies by comparing ad hoc data provided by citizen scientists (termed "occasional") to that of (1) road patrols by trained personnel (termed "road patrol") and (2) regular, informed observers working in the conservation field (termed "regular").…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing the Value of Citizen Science for Roadkill Studies: A Case Study from South Africa

et al. 2018

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Roads impact wildlife through a range of mechanisms from habitat loss and decreased landscape connectivity to direct mortality through wildlife-vehicle collisions (roadkill). These collisions have been rated amongst the highest modern risks to wildlife. With the development of "citizen science" projects, in which members of the public participate in data collection, it is now possible to monitor the impacts of roads over scales far beyond the limit of traditional studies. However, the reliability of data provided by citizen scientists for roadkill studies remains largely untested. This study used a dataset of 2,666 roadkill reports on national and regional roads in South Africa (total length ∼170,000 km) over 3 years. We first compared roadkill data collected from trained road patrols operating on a major highway with data submitted by citizen scientists on the same road section (431 km). We found that despite minor differences, the broad spatial and taxonomic patterns were similar between trained reporters and untrained citizen scientists. We then compared data provided by two groups of citizen scientists across South Africa: (1) those working in the zoology/conservation sector (that we have termed "regular observers," whose reports were considered to be more accurate due to their knowledge and experience), and (2) occasional observers, whose reports required verification by an expert. Again, there were few differences between the type of roadkill report provided by regular and occasional reporters; both types identified the same area (or cluster) where roadkill was reported most frequently. However, occasional observers tended to report charismatic and easily identifiable species more often than road patrols or regular observers. We conclude that citizen scientists can provide reliable data for roadkill studies when it comes to identifying general patterns and high-risk areas. Thus, citizen science has the potential to be a valuable tool for identifying potential roadkill hotspots and at-risk species across large spatial and temporal scales that are otherwise impractical and expensive when using standard data collection methodologies. This tool allows researchers to extract data and focus their efforts on potential areas and species of concern, with the ultimate goal of implementing effective roadkill-reduction measures.

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Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Value of Citizen Science for Roadkill Studies: A Case Study from South Africa

et al. 2018

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“…For example, four studies postulated that the way crossing structures are currently selected and even evaluated is biased and called for more effective mitigation selection and surveillance protocols [104,[125][126][127]. Similarly, a study conducted in a conservation area in South Africa revealed that the way roadkill surveys are undertaken can strongly influence road mortality estimates [128]. They identified that survey speed, time of day, and number of observers were all important factors to consider and highly recommended the use of standardized protocols.…”

Section: Survey Design and Mitigationmentioning

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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“…One transect was surveyed in one day in the morning session starting at 7:30 to around 11:30 am and in the afternoon session, it started from 14:00 to around 18:00 pm. The vehicle was driven at 20 kph or less with stopping to take records of each bird or group of birds encountered (Collinson et al, 2014;Mahulu et al, 2015). A binocular was also used to clearly identify birds.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is because the periodic road maintenance entails habitat destruction and population fragmentation (Senzota, 2012). As a result, its effects on birds can represent high mortalities of birds on roads passing through protected areas (Ramp et al, 2006;Mkanda and Chansa, 2011;Collinson et al, 2014). For the period between 2013 and 2015, the impact of roads on bird mortality was reported to be 50% in Tarangire-Manyara Ecosystem in Tanzania (Kioko et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial-temporal distribution, abundance, diversity and mortality of birds on road network in the Serengeti Ecosystem, Tanzania

Nkwabi¹,

Lyamuya²,

Masenga³

et al. 2018

Int. J. Biodivers. Conserv.

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Vehicle collisions with wild animals are acknowledged as a non-negligible source of death of wild birds and often affect their spatial-temporal distribution, abundance and diversity. However, data to ascertain the impact of road kills on wild birds are scarce, especially around the Serengeti Ecosystem in Tanzania. This work aims to investigate the impact of road kills on wild birds and their spatial-temporal distribution, abundance and diversity in the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania. Five road transects each with a length of 40 km were established within the main roads of the Serengeti ecosystem. Bird surveys were conducted in the morning and afternoon in both wet and dry seasons (March and August 2015), respectively. The study results indicated that, 1472 birds have been inventoried which belong to 42 families, 62 genera and 98 species. Mean number of individual birds was the highest in wooded grassland and species richness was also the highest in grassland habitats. In addition, more birds were observed during the wet than dry season. Birds' mean abundance was higher during the morning than afternoon, especially in the grassland. In the ecosystem, 31 individual birds belonging to 19 species that were distributed in five families were found killed along the road networks. In the Seronera-Fort Ikoma transect, more bird species were killed in roads with higher traffic volume during the morning than afternoon compared to other transects in the area. On the contrary, the extent of the road kill was the highest in wooded grassland. This study recommends that increased road kills could be regulated within the ecosystem by placing signposts at the entrance and visitors' centre in conjunction with educational programs to raise road users' awareness on the impact of road kills for biodiversity conservation in the area.

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Wildlife road traffic accidents: a standardized protocol for counting flattened fauna

Cited by 56 publications

References 42 publications

Testing the Value of Citizen Science for Roadkill Studies: A Case Study from South Africa

Testing the Value of Citizen Science for Roadkill Studies: A Case Study from South Africa

Effects of Road Density and Pattern on the Conservation of Species and Biodiversity

Spatial-temporal distribution, abundance, diversity and mortality of birds on road network in the Serengeti Ecosystem, Tanzania

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