Abstract
Highways that cross natural reserves are an intrusion with a nonnegligible negative impact on the behavior of wild animals and have numerous and diverse ecological impacts on wildlife near road areas. Field experiments were carried out to collect traffic flow data on the Qinghai‐Tibet Highway on the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau, China, and the behavior of the Tibetan antelope crossing the highway was observed. The relationships between the percentage of antelopes successfully crossing the highway and the different traffic flows were analyzed. The results demonstrate that the traffic volume is the main factor affecting the success rate of Tibetan antelopes when crossing the highway, displaying a nonlinear negative correlation. Furthermore, the behavioral responses of the Tibetan antelopes within 500 m of the Qinghai‐Tibet Highway before and after different parking behaviors were observed and the proportions of the different behaviors exhibited by the Tibetan antelopes affected by different driver parking behaviors were analyzed. Parking behaviors were found to have the most significant effect on Tibetan antelope behavior within 400 m of the highway, where parking with somebody getting out having the most prominent impact. The results of this study can guide engineering measures to protect wildlife in the plateau region.
Highlights
Highways that cross natural reserves are an intrusion and have numerous and diverse ecological impacts on wildlife
Traffic flow data and the highway crossing behaviors of Tibetan antelope were recorded at selected fixed positions. en, bivariate correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between the traffic volume in different periods and the percentage of antelopes successfully crossing the highway at that time
The behaviors of Tibetan antelopes crossing the highway were observed at the three key nodes K2904, K2965, and K2998 on the Qinghai-Tibet Highway under different traffic flow conditions
Summary
Highways that cross natural reserves are an intrusion and have numerous and diverse ecological impacts on wildlife. Growing evidence has shown that road traffic has a nonnegligible negative impact on wild animals. E effects range from vehicular mortality due to collisions with wildlife to hindering wildlife movement and affecting animal behavior nearby roads [5,6,7]. Road kills are a direct embodiment of the negative impact of road traffic on wildlife. Basic enumeration studies on roadkill rates have been conducted by researchers for various animals around the world. Baskaran and Samson estimated the road kills of animals on state highways at Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in India to analyze the effect of vehicular traffic on wild animals [5, 9]. Researchers have attempted to propose management strategies to reduce vehicle-caused wildlife mortalities. Fedorca et al suggested the implementation of sustainable landscape management planning strategies to mitigate wildlife-vehicle collisions [12]. e proper design of animal passages was analyzed by Collinson and Wang in their studies on roadkill reduction in Africa and China, respectively [13, 14]
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