LANDSCAPE FACTORS POTENTIATING WILDLIFE ROAD KILLS ON A STRETCH OF THE GO-080 HIGHWAY, GOIÁS - BRAZIL

Abstract

Studies on road ecology are important in Brazil, as the fragmentation of landscapes for the construction of road modal infrastructure puts wildlife and its habitats at risk. In view of this, this study aims to evaluate the factors that potentiate the road kills of wild fauna, in a stretch of a highway located in the state of Goiás, the central portion of Brazil. During the research, 31 field surveys were carried out, with 76 records of the occurrence of vertebrate animals being run over in two different periods, from June 2019 to April 2020 and November 2020 to March 2021. Data collection enabled the generation of cartographic products and statistical analysis of K from Ripley-2D and Kernel density, which evidenced the roadkill hotspots. The results revealed that 38% of the occurrences were in the dry period, in stretches of the highway that cross fragmented areas of forest vegetation. The areas of vegetal formation cover 77.05% of the surroundings of the highway, where 41 animal carcasses were found, totaling 53.9% of the observed records.