Passagem de fauna como forma de mitigação de atropelamento de canídeos em rodovias e ferrovias brasileiras: Uma revisão bibliográfica

Abstract

Brazil, a megadiverse country, suffers from environmental impacts resulting from human actions, with wildlife roadkill being one of the main issues. This impact is one of the most severe for species conservation at the national level, given that the country has one of the largest road networks in the world. Measures can be taken to reduce these impacts, and one example is the implementation of wildlife crossings on these highways. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the state of the art of research on the use of wildlife crossings by canids, which can be a vulnerable group. There are only six species in Brazil, and four of them are listed as endangered. Information and data on roadkill of wild canids from books and scientific articles were considered, and articles that provided information on canids were retained while those without such data were discarded, resulting in a total of 13 studies conducted between 1998 and 2023. The year 2014 had the highest number of publications on the topic, with a predominance of articles in scientific journals authored by four authors, followed by undergraduate thesis works with a single author. On average, the studies lasted for 514.46 days, and the majority of them were conducted on duplicated highways. The Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes were the most represented in terms of the number of studies, with most of the crossings installed near protected areas. The majority of the studies were conducted in the states of São Paulo, followed by Rio Grande do Sul. A total of 317 wildlife crossings were monitored, including 205 culverts in a single study, 105 underpasses, and seven canopy bridge types. On average, the fauna protection measures covered 128.9 kilometers of highway. In total, 13,119 (on average 1,311.9) animals were recorded using these crossings. On average, 1.55 species of canids utilized the crossings, including the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous), Pampas fox (Lycalopex gymnocercus), and maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus). In 61.6% of the studies, these three canid species used the crossings, preferring dry underpasses with vegetation fragments around the highways. It can be stated that wildlife crossings, on average, reduce the number of animals killed by 47%. The maned wolf experienced significantly fewer roadkill incidents after the construction of wildlife crossings.