Assessing patterns of bird roadkills in a high Andean Ecuadorian national park

Abstract

ABSTRACTAnimal mortality due to collisions with vehicles in roads are a major threat to biodiversity; however, there is still much to learn about this problem in the tropical Andes hot spot. We describe general patterns of bird mortality associated with the presence of a road that bisects Cajas National Park (CNP), in the southern high Andes of Ecuador. We use a published study of the abundance of species in the study area, and explored if there were particular ecological traits that predisposed species to collisions with vehicles. Roadkill data were gathered by collecting carcasses on 15 km of a main road that crosses páramo grasslands. Overall we found carcasses of 23 species. Bird mortality rate was four individuals per km per year. We found an association between roadkills and the abundance of species in areas close to the road. Moreover, forest species were less likely to be road-killed than species with other habitat preferences. Our results can be used to ameliorate roadkills in CNP and to raise concern on the direct effects of roads in the páramo of the Tropical Andes.