Studying mortality in vertebrates
Transport infrastructures can generate relevant impacts on natural habitats (including their fragmentation), changing their operational dynamics. In addition to the effects resulting from this fragmentation, roads are a direct cause of death through being run over or run over, but also through collisions or crushing with various elements of the road (fences, fences, cables, tensioners, drains, etc.).
Despite the above effects, Information on fauna mortality due to road traffic is scarce and spread across different sources.. Only accidents, understood as collisions with wild animals causing material or personal damage, have national coverage and permanent monitoring that allows the identification of the most affected species and areas of special risk. However, the extent of the problem for vertebrates that do not cause road accidents (reptiles, amphibians, small birds and mammals) is only known from smaller-scale research, which is also generally not subject to long-term monitoring.
Proposing solutions is difficult because the true extent of the problem is not known. Therefore, Correctly quantifying this impact is crucial carry out an initial assessment of the most affected taxonomic groups and then evaluate the consequences at population level, geographical distribution, etc.
The presented paper reveals a chilling fact: transportation infrastructure can affect up to 55 million vertebrates per year. For this reason, the publication emphasizes the urgency of taking safety measures conservation and mitigation that protect biodiversity of these types of accidents.