Research and conservation priorities to protect wildlife from collisions with vehicles

Abstract

The rapidly expanding global road network poses threats to wildlife, including direct mortality. Given limited knowledge and resources, strategic allocation is critical. We introduce a method to identify priority areas and taxa to study and protect affected by vehicle collisions using Latin America as a case study. In this region high biodiversity and an expanding road network can result in high impacts from roads, yet emerging research expertise offers opportunities for action. To identify priority targets we combined predicted spatially-explicit roadkill rates for birds and mammals with information about the current road network and species conservation status. Priority areas for conservation (with many species susceptible to roadkill but few or inexistent roads) were largely concentrated in the Amazon; while priority areas for research (unstudied regions with many roads and many species susceptible to roadkill) occur in various areas from Southern Mexico to Chile. Priority taxa for conservation reflected studied, roadkill-susceptible groups (eg, vultures and armadillos), while priority taxa for research were defined as either poorly-studied roadkill-susceptible groups or unstudied groups of conservation concern (eg, cuckoos and shrew opossums). Our approach offers a tool that could be applied to other areas and taxa to facilitate a more strategic allocation of resources in conservation and research in road ecology.