Wildlife vertebrate mortality in roads from Santa Fe Province, Argentina.

A. M. ATTADEMO; P. M. PELTZER; LAJMANOVICH R. C.; ELBERG, G.; BASSÓ A; SANCHEZ, L.C

REVISTA MEXICANA DE BIODIVERSIDAD

INST BIOLOGIA

Año: 2011 vol. 82 p. 915 - 925

1870-3453

Mortality of vertebrates was monitored on 2 roads (National Road 168; NR168 and Provincial Road 1;PR1) in Santa Fe Province (Argentina) from October 2007 to August 2008. These roads differed in traffic volume andsurrounding landscape management conditions. We also investigated the influence of environmental variables (meanmonthly air temperature and monthly total rainfall) on the incidence of road kills. Two people monitored the roads onfoot (1 000-m line transects), 3 times a month (36 samples per road). We found 2 024 vertebrate road killed specimensrepresenting 61 species (7 amphibians, 15 reptiles, 32 birds, and 7 mammals). The toad Rhinella fernandezae was themost frequently killed species (n = 1307, 64.57%). NR168 had a higher incidence of vertebrate road kills, particularityfor amphibians, whereas birds had a higher incidence of road kills on PR1. We found a positive correlation betweenprecipitation and temperature with vertebrate road kills on PR1. We suggest that vertebrate road mortality is a veryserious problem for the conservation of the biodiversity in Santa Fe Province-Argentina, therefore implementingmitigation measures will be necessary.