Effects of culverts and roadside fencing on the rate of roadkill of small terrestrial vertebrates in northern Limpopo, South Africa
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Date
Authors
Collinson, Wendy J.
Davies-Mostert, Harriet T.
Davies-Mostert, Warwick
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Cambridge
Abstract
We tested the effectiveness of low-level roadside fencing to direct wildlife towards existing culverts beneath the road (underpasses) in order to reduce road deaths of small terrestrial vertebrates. While our results showed a reduction in roadkill count (from eight to one) along the stretches of road where we installed barriers (from an average of 0.33 roadkill/day/km to 0.04 roadkill/day/km), this decrease was not significant, possibly due to the small number of dead animals detected across all sites. Our trial highlights the challenges in acquiring robust evidence for roadkill reduction interventions and, given the small sample size, we were unable to elicit firm conclusions for this study. We therefore propose further testing of the efficacy of roadside fencing to reduce roadkill.
Description
Keywords
Roadside fencing, Road deaths, Barriers, Animals
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Collinson, W.J., Davies-Mostert, H.T. & Davies-Mostert, W. 2017, 'Effects of culverts and roadside fencing on the rate of roadkill of small terrestrial vertebrates in northern Limpopo, South Africa', Conservation Evidence, vol. 14, pp. 39-43.