Roadkill of wild mammals on RS-135

Abstract

Among environmental impacts, fragmentation of habitat for agriculture and livestock has led to a distortion of the natural environment and increased rates of wildlife killed on roads. Weekly surveys of road-killed mammals were made along highway RS-135 (km 8-34) between May 2008 and May 2010. For each case, we recorded the species and location along the road. We collected 95 mammals belonging to 16 species and 12 families, with a frequency of 0.025 roadkills per kilometer. The most abundant species were Cerdocyon thous (22.11%), Nasua nasua (10.52%), Pseudalopex gymnocercus (9.47%) and Cavia aperea (7.37%), which together comprised 49.5% of the cases. This study contributed with information on roadkill of wild mammals in RS-135 of Rio Grande do Sul.

Keywords

• Conservation
• Roadkill
• Wild mammals