Abstract

ZUNIGA-BAOS, Jorge Alberto  and  VERA-PEREZ, Luis Enrique. Mortality of snakes on the road El Valle de Toledo-Toledo, Antioquia, Colombia. rev. colombiana cienc. anim. Recia [online]. 2020, vol.12, n.1, pp.41-49.  Epub Aug 07, 2021. ISSN 2027-4297.  https://doi.org/10.24188/recia.v12.n1.2020.745.

Mortality of snakes caused by vehicular traffic in a segment of 17 km of the road between El Valle de Toledo and the municipality of Toledo, department of Antioquia, Colombia was determined through four months of continuous sampling between 1 October 2018 and 31 January 2019. Eighteen individuals corresponding to 14 species and three families were registered, Colubridae being the most representative (12 spp.), and Mastigodryas pleei and Leptophis ahaetulla the most run over species. Roadkill rate was 0.0043 individuals/km, which is relatively low when compared to those obtained in other related studies. 50% of the records occurred in the month of January, the time of least rainfall in the study area. Finally, these results show a small part of the vehicular affectation on this group of fauna, which could have a greater impact in the future according to the development of road infrastructure in this region, for which some strategies to mitigate the negative effects on wildlife are proposed.

Keywords : Colubrid snakes; reptiles; road ecology; road infrastructure; roadkill; snake conservation.

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