Bird roadkill occurences in Aragon, Spain Atropellos mortales de aves en Aragón, España

The increase in road networks and vehicular traffic has posed a major threat to vertebrates over the last century. Although it is difficult to determine the annual number of avian-vehicle collisions, 2 to 9 million roadkills have been estimated for Europe, with numbers varying from country to countr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Vidal-Vallés, D., Rodríguez, A., Pérez-Collazos, Ernesto
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/173148
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/173148
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Mitigation
Road ecology
Raptor
Number of roadkills per km index
Necrophagous
Areas of high roadkill occurrence
Descripción
Sumario:The increase in road networks and vehicular traffic has posed a major threat to vertebrates over the last century. Although it is difficult to determine the annual number of avian-vehicle collisions, 2 to 9 million roadkills have been estimated for Europe, with numbers varying from country to country. Few studies have been conducted at a national or regional level in Spain. In this study we used data from La Alfranca Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre database to determine location, season and incidence of avian-vehicle collisions in the autonomous county of Aragon (Spain). A total of 643 wild birds representing 71 species were killed on roads between 2012 and 2014. Nine of these species have a high incidence of avian-vehicle collisions, four a moderate incidence, and 57 a low incidence. The species with the highest incidence was the griffon vulture (120 individuals). Spatial distribution of avian-vehicle collisions was heterogeneous, and the incidence was highest in July, August and September. We identified 41 reas of high roadkill occurrence, using a number of roadkills per km index (RI): 28 in the province of Zaragoza, 9 in Huesca and 4 in Teruel. Management strategies are proposed to reduce this threat on wild birds.