Leopard Tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis) Road Mortality and Extralimital Occurence in Western Cape, South Africa.

James Baxter-Gilbert,Julia L Riley

doi:10.15641/bo.v10i0.732

Abstract

During field surveys in the Spring of 2018 we made two observations of Leopard Tortoises (Stigmochelys pardalis) on roadsides near Lambert's Bay, WC, South Africa. One was a deceased adult female, killed as a result of a tortoise-vehicle collision. The other was a live adult females, which was move off the road in the direction she was headed. These observations illustrate that even the largest tortoise species in the region can be suseptable to road mortlaity, a known threat of turtle and torioses populations globally. Furthermore, these observations occured well outside the species presumed native range and listed introduced range. 

Highlights

Biodiversity Observations is an open access electronic journal published by the Animal Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town, available at https://journals.uct.ac.za/index.php/BO/
A study assessing driver attitudes on animal-vehicle collisions in Northern Tanzania, found that drivers said they were least likely to hit leopard tortoises due to the perceived damage it could cause to their vehicles (Kioko et al 2015), as they are one of the largest species of tortoise on the continent (Boycott and Bourquin 2000)
The direct effect of road mortality has a high likelihood of effecting many African reptile populations, especially for long-lived species with low recruitment rates that are negatively impacted over the long-term by small increases in adult mortality

Summary

Introduction

Biodiversity Observations is an open access electronic journal published by the Animal Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town, available at https://journals.uct.ac.za/index.php/BO/. James Baxter-Gilbert Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 7600, ORCID ID 0000-0002-1283-8893 Julia L.

Results

Conclusion