Abstract

NOVAES, Roberto Leonan M et al. On a collision course: the vulnerability of bats to roadkills in Brazil. Mastozool. neotrop. [online]. 2018, vol.25, n.1, pp.115-128. ISSN 0327-9383.

In Brazil, studies on roadkills are recent and usually restricted to lists of species found at some road stretch. Among mammals, medium- and large-sized species have received greater attention. The present study aimed at presenting the first list of bat roadkills in Brazil, including comments on the traits that may cause roadkills. We recorded 415 deaths from 44 species of seven families in all Brazilian biomes. We did not observe a relationship between body size or type of flight with the number of bat-vehicle collisions. Frugivore was the trophic guild most victimized, possibly due to greater natural abundance, foraging in low height airspace, and capacity to make long-distance movements. The elevated number of species recorded indicates that these roads may exert a negative effect on bat fauna. We encourage road ecologists and environmental agencies to include bats in their fauna monitoring of road infrastructure and request to make more accurate estimates of this impact.

Keywords : Conservation; Road ecology; Urbanization impact; Vehicle collisions.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )