TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2018//
TI  - Reptile road-kills in Southern Brazil: composition, hot moments and hotspots
JO  - Science of the total environment
A1  - Gonçalves, Larissa Oliveira
A1  - Alvares, Diego Janisch
A1  - Teixeira, Fernanda Zimmermann
A1  - Schuck, Gabriela
A1  - Coelho, Igor Pfeifer
A1  - Esperandio, Isadora Beraldi
A1  - Anza, Juan
A1  - Beduschi, Júlia
A1  - Bastazini, Vinicius Augusto Galvão
A1  - Kindel, Andreas
SP  - 1438
EP  - 1445
VL  - 615
IS  - 
N2  - Understanding road-kill patterns is the first step to assess the potential effects of road mortality on wildlife populations, as well as to define the need for mitigation and support its planning. Reptiles are one of the vertebrate groups most affected by roads through vehicle collisions, both because they are intentionally killed by drivers, and due to their biological needs, such as thermoregulation, which make them more prone to collisions. We conducted monthly road surveys (33months), searching for carcasses of freshwater turtles, lizards, and snakes on a 277-km stretch of BR-101 road in Southernmost Brazil to estimate road-kill composition and magnitude and to describe the main periods and locations of road-kills. We modeled the distribution of road-kills in space according to land cover classes and local traffic volume. Considering the detection capacity of our method and carcass persistence probability, we estimated that 15,377 reptiles are road-killed per year (55reptiles/km/year). Road-kills, especially lizards and snakes, were concentrated during summer, probably due to their higher activity in this period. Road-kill hotspots were coincident among freshwater turtles, lizards, and snakes. Road-kill distribution was negatively related to pine plantations, and positively related to rice plantations and traffic volume. A cost-benefit analysis highlighted that if mitigation measures were installed at road-kill hotspots, which correspond to 21% of the road, they could have avoided up to 45% of recorded reptile fatalities, assuming a 100% mitigation effectiveness. Given the congruent patterns found for all three taxa, the same mitigation measures could be used to minimize the impacts of collision on local herpetofauna.<br><br>Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0048-9697
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.09.053
ID  - ref1
ER  -