Assessing the effects of road type and position on the road on small mammal carcass persistence time.

Roadkill estimates can be heavily biased due to variable carcass persistence time. If not adequately considered, this bias may lead to incorrect management actions. We designed an experiment aimed to provide an accurate assessment of carcass persistence time according to road type and position on the road along 114 km of roads (24 in dirt roads, 74 two-lane roads, and 16 in four-lane roads). We used two types of rodent of different body size to perform the experiment: mice (30 ± 8 g) were placed on the road shoulders and road lanes every 1000 m, and rats (400 ± 55 g) were placed only on road shoulders every 2000 m. Carcasses were monitored for up to five consecutive days. The persistence times of mice and rats were in general similar, with an estimated median time of 1 day. However, we found considerable differences according to road type and position on the road: the estimated median persistence time was substantially longer for carcasses on the four-lane roads, and longer on the road shoulders compared to the traffic lanes. Overall, we estimated an annual mortality of small animals to be higher than 100.000 individuals in Federal District, of which ca. 10% in dirt roads. Our results confirm that a great proportion of carcasses are likely to be undetected in roadkill surveys, particularly small body sized animals, and that such errors are also related to the type of road and the position of carcasses on the road. We highlight that the impact of dirt and two-lane roads on wildlife may be greatly underestimated.

Data and Resources

Cite as

Lima Santos R.A. y Ascensão F. Assessing the effects of road type and position on the road on small mammal carcass persistence time. Springer, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-018-1246-2

Clipboard Icon
Retrieved: 23 Feb 2025 00:30:00
RIS BibTeX

Metadata
Download
DCAT-AP/NTI-RISP

Basic information
Resource type Text
Date of creation 2024-12-02
Date of last revision 2025-02-22
Show changelog
Metadata identifier ff77511a-34d7-5fd1-9ea4-d0bb07e6063b
Metadata language Spanish
Themes (NTI-RISP)
High-value dataset category
ISO 19115 topic category biota
Keyword URIs
Bibliographic information
Name of the dataset creator Lima Santos, R.A. y Ascensão, F.
Name of the dataset editor Springer
Other identifier DOI: 10.1007/s10344-018-1246-2
Identifier of the dataset creator
Email of the dataset creator
Website of the dataset creator
Provenance
Lineage statement
Metadata Standard
Version notes
Version