Wildlife mortality records caused by vehicular collisions on the Toluviejo - Cienaga de La Caimanera highway, Sucre, Colombia

Abstract

The present work evaluates the accidental mortality for collisions over wildlife and vehicles associated to the road that going from Toluviejo town to Ciénaga de la Caimanera in the department of Sucre, Colombia, crossing an important portion of Montes de María, it passes through by antropic savannas until arriving to the area of mangroves in the Caribbean coast. Were registered 431 individuals road killed: mammals 28,1 % (121), birds 28,8 % (124), reptiles 21,8 % (94) and amphibians 21,3 % (92). Specifically the species with more mortality were: Cerdocyon thous (10.9 %), Iguana iguana (10.8hj%), Crotophaga ani (9.5%), Tamandua mexicana (7.7 %) and Didelphis marsupialis (6.1 %). The rate runover was superior in all the cases, both as, in a general and as specified way when comparing it with related works. The analyzed road doesn't present any signaling protection for the wild fauna, it lacks illumination, and it is built in its entirety in asphalt, with relative good state. The running over rate it is related to factors such as: vehicular flow, wide of the road, behavior of the species, vegetable covering and the vehicular speed, being all of great importance and wide influence in the detected road killed.

Keywords

• Vertebrados
• Arrollamiento
• Tráfico vehicular
• Caribe colombiano