Département de Biologie des Organismes et des Populations, Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France.
Biodiversity and Development Institute, Unit 4, Gunner's Park, Epping 1, Cape Town, 7460, South Africa.
Sci Rep. 2022 Feb 21;12(1):2902. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-05294-9.
The global expansion of road networks threatens apex predator conservation and ecosystem functioning. This occurs through wildlife-vehicle collisions, habitat loss and fragmentation, reduced genetic connectivity and increased poaching. We reviewed road impacts on 36 apex predator species and assessed their risk from current roads based on road exposure and species vulnerability. Our findings reveal all apex predators are exposed to road impacts. Eight of the ten species with the highest risk occur in Asia, although other high-risk species are present in the Americas, Africa and Europe. The sloth bear suffers the highest risk of all apex predators, followed by the tiger and dhole. Based on species risk from roads, we propose a widely applicable method to assess the potential impact of future roads on apex predators. We applied this method to proposed road developments in three areas: the Brazilian Amazon, Africa, and Nepal, to locate high-impact road segments. Roughly 500 protected areas will be intersected by these roads, threatening core apex predator habitats. We advocate the need for rigorous road development planning to apply effective mitigation measures as an urgent priority and to avoid construction in wilderness areas and predator strongholds.
道路网络的全球扩张威胁着顶级捕食者的保护和生态系统功能。这是通过野生动物-车辆碰撞、栖息地丧失和破碎化、遗传连通性降低以及偷猎增加而发生的。我们回顾了 36 种顶级捕食者物种的道路影响，并根据道路暴露和物种脆弱性评估了它们目前面临道路的风险。我们的研究结果表明，所有顶级捕食者都面临道路影响。十种风险最高的物种中有八种出现在亚洲，尽管其他高风险物种也存在于美洲、非洲和欧洲。树懒熊是所有顶级捕食者中面临最高风险的物种，其次是老虎和豺。基于物种面临道路的风险，我们提出了一种广泛适用的方法来评估未来道路对顶级捕食者的潜在影响。我们将该方法应用于巴西亚马逊、非洲和尼泊尔的三个拟议道路开发项目，以确定高影响的道路路段。这些道路将穿过大约 500 个保护区，威胁到顶级捕食者的核心栖息地。我们主张需要进行严格的道路发展规划，作为当务之急，采取有效的缓解措施，并避免在荒野地区和捕食者据点进行建设。
