Abstract
Roadkill of wild vertebrates along GO-060, Brazil. Roads represent an old and constant cause of accidental death of wildlife. From May 2004 to November 2005, we recorded the roadkills of vertebrates in the GO-060 road between Goiânia and Ipora. For each road-killed animal we wrote down the species and location along the road. We found 308 animals road- killed from at least 25 vertebrate species: 86% mammals, 11% birds and 3% reptiles. Tamandua tetradactyla, Cerdocyon thous and Myrmecophaga tridactyla were, in decreasing order, the species with the largest number of road-killed individuals. Among mammals, the number of road-killed individuals was not related to species weight. The number of species and road-killed animals was constant throughout the 17 months of the research. The average frequency of animal roadkills in the dry season (April to September) is slightly higher than the frequency in the rainy season (October to March). The average frequency of species victim to accidents, however, is constant throughout the dry and rainy seasons. The incidence of species and individuals of road-killed animals per 10 km was not influenced by the number of forest fragments along the sides of the road. We suggest that speed reducers could decrease the number of animals killed on the road.
Highlights
In Brazil, economic development is traditionally linked to the expansion of the frontiers of agriculture, cattle-breeding and industry, and to the expansion of the road network
We identify the species and quantify the number of roadkills of wild vertebrates on a part of the GO-060 highway between Iporá and Goiânia, Goiás State, with the aim of verifying whether the rate of roadkills varies between seasons, whether it is related to the presence of fragments of native vegetation along the road, and whether it is influenced by the species weight
The mortality rate of wild vertebrates found in the present work (0.014 animals per km covered) was higher than that found by Pereira et al (2006) (0.003 animals km-1), Vieira (1996) and Cherem et al (2007) (0.008 animals km-1), but lower than those of other works: 0.078 (TURCI; BERNARDE, 2009) and 0.082 (ROSA; MAUHS, 2004)
Summary
In Brazil, economic development is traditionally linked to the expansion of the frontiers of agriculture, cattle-breeding and industry, and to the expansion of the road network. This type of strategy has been responsible for the change of landscapes in the country. Deforestation of native Cerrado and Caatinga vegetation, for instance, is closely related to the construction of roads (PRADO et al, 2006; SANTOS; TABARELLI, 2002). Roads should permit the flux of animals, and the development of mechanisms that can avoid road kills and facilitate the crossing of animals should be part of road planning, construction and expansion (BISSONETTE, 2002)
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