Effects of culverts and roadside fencing on the rate of roadkill of small terrestrial vertebrates in northern Limpopo, South Africa

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

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.