Amphibian and Reptile Road Ecology

Download or read book Amphibian and Reptile Road Ecology written by Cheryl S. Brehme and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2024-05-21 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roads may threaten the persistence of wildlife populations by acting as barriers to movement and/or sources of increased mortality across the landscape. Amphibians and reptiles have been identified as being particularly susceptible to negative road impacts. Many species migrate annually among habitats to support basic life history requirements such as breeding, development, foraging, and overwintering. For these species, individuals may need to successfully cross roads multiple times each year for the population to persist. Many are slow-moving and freeze in the presence of danger, making it almost impossible for them to avoid oncoming vehicles. Although there are a plethora of road mortality location and count data, the effects of road mortality on the long-term viability of amphibian and reptile populations and metapopulations are mostly unknown due to a lack of information on their abundance, vital rates, behavior, and spatial and temporal dynamics.