Canary Islands' Ornithology and Natural History Group (GOHNIC), La Malecita s/n, Buenavista del Norte, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
Piedra Viva 26, San Bartolomé, Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain.
PLoS One. 2018 Mar 21;13(3):e0192731. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0192731. eCollection 2018.
Insular wildlife is more prone to extinction than their mainland relatives. Thus, a basic understanding of non-natural mortality sources is the first step in the development of conservation management plans. The Canary Islands are an important tourist destination due to their unique climate and rich scenery and biodiversity. During the last few decades, there has been significant development of urban areas and busy road networks. However, there have been no studies describing the effects of road mortality on wildlife in this archipelago. We describe the temporal and spatial patterns of wildlife roadkill in Lanzarote (UNESCO Biosphere Reserve), using counts from cars for an entire annual cycle. A total of 666 roadkills were recorded (monthly average of 0.09 birds/km and 0.14 mammals/km) comprising at least 37 species including native birds and introduced mammals. Seasonal abundance, richness and diversity of roadkills showed a high peak during summer months for both mammals and birds. GLMs indicated that accidents (including birds and mammals) have a higher probability of occurrence close to houses and on roads with high speed limits. When analysed separately, mammal kills occurred in sectors with high speed limits, close to houses and in areas surrounded by exotic bushes, while bird roadkills appeared in road sectors with high speed limits, close to houses and low traffic volume. Our findings highlight that roads are a potential threat to native birds in the eastern Canary Islands. Detailed studies on the local population dynamics of highly affected species, such as the Houbara Bustard, Eurasian Stone Curlew, Barn Owl or Southern Shrike, are urgently needed to determine whether these levels of road mortality are sustainable.
岛屿野生动物比它们的大陆亲属更容易灭绝。因此，了解非自然死亡源是制定保护管理计划的第一步。加那利群岛因其独特的气候、丰富的风景和生物多样性而成为重要的旅游目的地。在过去的几十年里，城市地区和繁忙的道路网络得到了显著发展。然而，目前还没有研究描述该群岛道路死亡对野生动物的影响。我们描述了兰萨罗特岛（联合国教科文组织生物圈保护区）野生动物道路死亡的时空模式，使用汽车在整个年度周期内的计数。共记录了 666 起道路死亡事件（每月鸟类每公里 0.09 只，哺乳动物每公里 0.14 只），包括至少 37 种鸟类和哺乳动物。鸟类和哺乳动物的道路死亡数量在夏季都达到了季节性丰富度、丰富度和多样性的高峰。GLMs 表明，事故（包括鸟类和哺乳动物）发生的可能性在靠近房屋和限速较高的道路附近更高。单独分析时，哺乳动物的死亡发生在限速较高、靠近房屋和周围有外来灌木丛的区域，而鸟类的道路死亡则发生在限速较高、靠近房屋和交通量较低的道路区域。我们的研究结果表明，道路对加那利群岛东部的本地鸟类构成了潜在威胁。迫切需要对受影响严重的物种（如红腹鸨、欧石鸻、仓鸮或南方伯劳）进行当地种群动态的详细研究，以确定这些道路死亡率是否可持续。
