Maharjan Rupesh, Langbein Jamie E, Young John H, Ryer Kevin, Fierro-Cabo Alejandro, Rahman Md Saydur, Kline Richard J
School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, Texas, United States of America.
Texas Department of Transportation, Environmental Affairs Division, Austin, Texas, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Jun 24;20(6):e0323705. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0323705. eCollection 2025.
Roadside exclusionary fencing is commonly used on highways to prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions. Although it can mitigate wildlife road mortality by limiting their access to the road, it can also create a barrier for wildlife stranded within the right-of-way. On State Highway 100 in Texas, the Texas Department of Transportation installed 10 wildlife exits (WEs) to allow endangered ocelots and other wildlife to escape the fenced roadway and minimize wildlife-vehicle collisions. Our study compared three types of WE designs within the same area from 2019 to 2024 to assess their effectiveness. The first design (Design A) was without a door and berm, and the second design (Design B) had a raised berm (10 WE sites) with a door (six WE sites) and no door (four WE sites). Lastly, a third design (Design C) had all the structural features of Design B, except for the raised berm removed from all ten WE sites. We used the approaches of four meso-carnivore target species (coyote, bobcat, northern raccoon, and striped skunk) as a metric and binomial generalized linear model as a statistical method to evaluate the effectiveness between three designs. The statistical analysis showed that the raised berm in Design B was the major cause for a decline in the approaches of meso-carnivore communities toward the WE sites. With the berm removal in Design C, the approaches of target species from road to habitat increased significantly in the sites without a door. Our study indicates that the WE door design might be another structural cause for limiting its effectiveness, where significantly lower approaches were recorded for meso-carnivores in the sites with a door compared to those without a door in Design C.
路边隔离围栏常用于高速公路，以防止野生动物与车辆碰撞。虽然它可以通过限制野生动物进入道路来降低其在道路上的死亡率，但它也可能给被困在路权范围内的野生动物造成障碍。在得克萨斯州的100号州际公路上，得克萨斯州交通运输部安装了10个野生动物出口（WEs），以使濒危豹猫和其他野生动物能够逃离围栏道路，并尽量减少野生动物与车辆的碰撞。我们的研究在2019年至2024年期间，在同一区域比较了三种类型的野生动物出口设计，以评估它们的有效性。第一种设计（设计A）没有门和护堤，第二种设计（设计B）有一个凸起的护堤（10个野生动物出口点），有门（6个野生动物出口点）和没有门（4个野生动物出口点）。最后，第三种设计（设计C）具有设计B的所有结构特征，但从所有10个野生动物出口点移除了凸起的护堤。我们以四种中型食肉动物目标物种（郊狼、山猫、北美浣熊和条纹臭鼬）的接近情况作为衡量标准，并使用二项式广义线性模型作为统计方法来评估三种设计之间的有效性。统计分析表明，设计B中的凸起护堤是中型食肉动物群落接近野生动物出口点数量下降的主要原因。在设计C中移除护堤后，在没有门的地点，目标物种从道路到栖息地的接近数量显著增加。我们的研究表明，野生动物出口门的设计可能是限制其有效性的另一个结构原因，在设计C中，有门的地点记录到的中型食肉动物接近数量明显低于没有门的地点。
