FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE FAUNA ROADKILL IN A CONSERVATION UNIT IN THE AMAZON
Hotspots. Road ecology. Roadkills spatial variation. Roadkills temporal variation. Wild vertebrates’ roadkill.
Death by vertebrates roadkill constitutes an essential impact in natural areas. However, data on this topic in the Amazon domain are still scarce, especially within protected areas. In this study, we analysed data from two years of monitoring amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds' roadkill on five types of traffic lanes in a conservation unit in the Brazilian Amazon. We tested which vertebrate classes were most affected, the feeding guilds most prone to mortality, the influence of seasonality, and the spatial pattern of roadkill. In the studied area, 2,795 roadkills were recorded, with amphibians being the most affected. Most of the road kills occurred during the rainy season. Correcting the roadkill data using observer efficiency and carcass dwell time data, we concluded that mortality rates might be underestimated by up to 40 times when compared to raw data. There was no significant difference between feeding guilds in fatalities, and rainfall and temperature positively affected roadkills of all vertebrate classes. The spatial pattern of roadkill varied between traffic lanes and vertebrate class types. The results indicate that amphibians are the most impacted by roadkills, although they are neglected in many traffic lanes monitoring. Mitigation measures for this type of impact must take into account times when the highest number of deaths occurs since rainfall and temperature influence this type of accident. In addition, different classes of vertebrates have different patterns of impact concentration along traffic routes, which makes mitigation planning more complex. Therefore, planning to reduce vertebrate deaths from roadkill must consider each taxon's particularity.