נובמבר 4, 2023

Daylight Saving Time and migration season a dangerous combination, CDFW says in warning to drivers.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is warning motorists to be wary of animals following Sunday’s time change.

https://fox40.com/news/california-connection/daylight-saving-time-and-migration-season-a-dangerous-combination-cdfw-says-in-warning-to-drivers/amp/

הועלה ב-נובמבר 4, 2023 11:24 אחה"צ על ידי biohexx1 biohexx1 | 2 תגובות | הוספת תגובה

אוקטובר 13, 2023

To understand California wildlife, researchers study roadkill. Here’s what it tells us.

The Road Ecology Center at UC Davis attempts to quantify the effect our driving has on wildlife in its annual roadkill report. Its most recent findings, released in late September, point to “excessive rates of traffic collisions” as one possible factor in the population decline of some of the Golden State’s iconic wildlife.

https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2023-10-12/what-roadkill-data-tells-us-about-california-wildlife-essential-california

הועלה ב-אוקטובר 13, 2023 09:35 אחה"צ על ידי biohexx1 biohexx1 | 8 תגובות | הוספת תגובה

אוגוסט 17, 2022

A dataset of road-killed vertebrates collected via citizen science from 2014–2020.

Data on road-killed animals is essential for assessing the impact of roads on biodiversity. In most European countries data on road-killed huntable wildlife exists, but data on other vertebrate species (e.g. amphibians, reptiles, small mammals) is scarce. Therefore, we conducted a citizen science project on road-killed vertebrates as a useful supplement to data on huntable wildlife collected by public authorities. The dataset contains 15198 reports with 17163 individual road-killed vertebrates collected by 912 participants.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-022-01599-6

הועלה ב-אוגוסט 17, 2022 11:10 אחה"צ על ידי biohexx1 biohexx1 | 0 תגובות | הוספת תגובה

מרץ 27, 2022

How does a newt cross the road? The teams trying to end a nightly carnage.

Brigades of volunteers are coming to the rescue of thousands of Pacific newts that perish each year as they migrate to their breeding grounds.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/26/california-pacific-newts-volunteers-cross-road

הועלה ב-מרץ 27, 2022 04:54 אחה"צ על ידי biohexx1 biohexx1 | 3 תגובות | הוספת תגובה

מרץ 22, 2022

California highways are creating an extinction crisis. And mountain lions aren’t the only roadkill.

When it comes to saving wildlife habitat and improving ecological connectivity, diminutive California newts — and many other species — need our help just as much as the state’s top feline predators. We are witnessing an extinction crisis on a heartbreaking scale. California, which has the most imperiled biodiversity of the 48 contiguous states, is at the core of that crisis.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/amp/California-highways-are-creating-an-extinction-17018811.php

הועלה ב-מרץ 22, 2022 10:29 אחה"צ על ידי biohexx1 biohexx1 | 2 תגובות | הוספת תגובה

פברואר 21, 2022

ינואר 27, 2022

Thousands of Newts from Becoming Roadkill — But “We Can’t Just Keep Going Out There Every Year and Picking Up the Newts for Three Months”.

Every year California newts (Taricha torosa) migrate across the Chileno Valley Road, from the woodland hills to Laguna Lake. Once they reach the water they find a mate and breed, with the most newts arriving between November and March. This is the deadliest time in a newt’s life.

https://baynature.org/2022/01/26/volunteers-save-thousands-of-newts-from-becoming-roadkill-but-we-cant-just-keep-going-out-there-every-year-and-picking-up-the-newts-for-three-months/

הועלה ב-ינואר 27, 2022 12:04 לפנה"צ על ידי biohexx1 biohexx1 | 8 תגובות | הוספת תגובה

ינואר 11, 2022

Can Citizen Scientists Prevent Another Pacific Newt Massacre?

Cars are annihilating the tiny amphibians.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pacific-newt-massacre.amp

הועלה ב-ינואר 11, 2022 09:33 אחה"צ על ידי biohexx1 biohexx1 | 4 תגובות | הוספת תגובה

נובמבר 10, 2021

California roadkill report names deadliest highways, costs.

Tens of thousands of mountain lions, bears, bighorn sheep, squirrels, birds and lizards have met their fate in collisions with vehicles across California, according to a “roadkill” report that names a San Francisco Bay Area highway as the state’s deadliest for wildlife.

The study by the Road Ecology Center at the University of California, Davis is based on more than 44,000 California Highway Patrol traffic incidents involving animals between 2009 and 2020. Also included are more than 65,000 reports from members of the public via the California Roadkill Observation System phone app.

The center mapped about 15,000 miles (24,140 kilometers) of state roadways to identify stretches where wildlife-vehicle collisions are most likely to occur.

The report names Interstate 280 between San Bruno and Cupertino as California’s deadliest highway. In fact, five of the top-20 “hot spots” are along I-280, costing the state about $5.8 million annually — or about $178,400 per mile per year — in damage and cleanup costs, researchers estimated.

In the past five years, collisions between wildlife and vehicles cost the state an estimated $1 billion, based on highway patrol reports and crash data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the study found. When including accidents reported to insurance companies but not to police, estimates rose to $2 billion for the years 2016 through 2020, according to the report.

More than 400 animal species were involved, including amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles. Mountain lions and black bears are most vulnerable to traffic collisions because they often cross highways amid shrinking habitat. Between 2016 and 2020, more than 300 cougars and 557 black bears were reported killed on roads, the study found.

One of the largest rates of roadkill reported for any wildlife species in the world occurs each year in Santa Clara County, south of San Francisco, the report said. Pacific newts cross Alma Bridge Road while migrating from a forest to Lexington Reservoir, then return after reproducing. Along the way, up to 5,000 newts are killed each winter and spring by vehicles, the research showed.

White House rushes with infrastructure fixes for US economy
“These findings illustrate the tip of the iceberg of ecological and economic impacts that wildlife-vehicle collisions cause for California,” said Fraser Shilling, the study’s lead author. “We need the Legislature to step in and help the good folks in transportation to fence the conflict hot spots and build many more wildlife crossings.”

Dedicated bridges for animals to cross highways are the best way to alleviate the problem, researchers concluded. Alameda County, east of San Francisco, is exploring potential sites for such spans. In Southern California, groundbreaking is expected next year for what would be one of the world’s largest wildlife crossings, over U.S. 101 northwest of Los Angeles.

“The advantages to building more wildlife crossings couldn’t be more obvious. They help make roads safer for drivers and passengers while giving animals a way to roam and thrive,” said Tiffany Yap, senior scientist and wildlife connectivity advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Suggest a Correction
CONTINUE READING

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/11/10/state-roadkill-report-identifies-i-280-as-states-deadliest-highway-for-animals/?amp

הועלה ב-נובמבר 10, 2021 11:42 אחה"צ על ידי biohexx1 biohexx1 | 5 תגובות | הוספת תגובה

אוקטובר 15, 2021

Elevated wildlife-vehicle collision rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wildlife-vehicle collisions threaten both humans and wildlife, but we still lack information about the relationship between traffic volume and wildlife-vehicle collisions. The COVID-19 pandemic allowed us to investigate the effects of traffic volume on wildlife-vehicle collisions in the United States. We observed decreased traffic nationwide, particularly in densely populated states with low or high disease burdens. Despite reduced traffic, total collisions were unchanged; wildlife-vehicle collisions did decline at the start of the pandemic, but increased as the pandemic progressed, ultimately exceeding collisions in the previous year. As a result, nationwide collision rates were higher during the pandemic. We suggest that increased wildlife road use offsets the effects of decreased traffic volume on wildlife-vehicle collisions. Thus, decreased traffic volume will not always reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-99233-9

הועלה ב-אוקטובר 15, 2021 04:45 אחה"צ על ידי biohexx1 biohexx1 | 2 תגובות | הוספת תגובה