Mamíferos de Médio e Grande Porte Atropelados no Oeste de Santa Catarina, Brasil

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the victimized mammal species by running over on five highways stretches , totalizing 110 km of extension, in the western region of Santa Catarina, Brazil . The seasonality variation, differences in the amount of road kill in different roads and different vegetation along these were analyzed. Monthly expeditions were conducted between June, 2013 and May, 2014 , and a total of 66 mammals were found dead, belonging to nine species, 0.05 ind./km/dia . The most frequent species were Didelphis albiventris with 25.75% of run over , followed by Cerdocyon thous with 16.66% , Nasua nasua with 9.10% , Dasypus novemcinctus with 7.57 % . There was no significant variation of run over animals on each season neither between the vegetation in roadkill place, but antropic vegetation had more roadkills. The difference in variance of run over mammals between highways was significant (H = 13.78, p < 0.01) . The amount of mammals run over was also significant based on the surrounding vegetation, with anthropic environment places, in the highway margins, having a greater roadkill number. The Cluster Analysis showed that the composition of run over mammals in dirty field, scrub zones and forest were similar to each other. This occurred also in the forest, Pinus sp. and agricultural areas. Keywords: Ecology of roads; Mortality ; Wild animals.