Overview of roadkills in the Serra da Macaca Park Road (SP-139), state of São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Fatalities involving wildlife on roads and highways due to collisions with automotive vehicles represent a severe threat to the conservation of several species of terrestrial vertebrates throughout the world. However, in addition to the negative impact caused by collisions, there are also serious social and economic implications that arise from this situation. This study aims at qualifying and quantifying the collisions with fauna in the Serra da Macaca Park Road (SP-139), since the end of the revitalization work that the road was underwent – in 2015 – over a stretch of 33 km that crosses the Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho (PECB), as well as identifying the predisposing factors that lead to such accidents. The ecological analyses were generated by a combination of the records kept by the fiscalization service of the Fundação Florestal and samples collected in the field. In total, the loss of 80 individuals belonging to 27 species was recorded over an estimated period of three years. Reptiles were the most affected group, followed by mammals. A significant part of the animals was unable to be recognized to the species level, since the taxonomic identification was conducted based on the morphology of the external characteristics and several of the carcasses were completely dilacerated. We identified that the temporal variations in the fatalities are related mainly to the intensity of the traffic in the road and to the differential response of herpetofauna to the stimuli of seasonality.