Do dry ledges reduce the barrier effect of roads?

Wildlife crossing structures combined with fencing seek to improve permeability and habitat connectivity across roads and reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions. However, the presence of water inside culverts can seriously limit their effectiveness. The implementation of dry ledges can be a good measure to allow crossing when flooded. So far, there is a lack of knowledge on the effectiveness of dry ledges combined with fencing for a wide diversity of vertebrates. The main goal of this study is to evaluate how the presence of dry ledge affect culvert use for Mediterranean mesocarnivores (red fox Vulpes vulpes, stone marten Martes foina, European badger Meles meles, European otter Lutra lutra and common genet Genetta genetta). Between January and March 2008, wooden dry ledges were placed in 15 of 32 surveyed culverts. Additionally 100 meters of small mesh size and buried fences were installed along each side of all culverts. During one year we used video surveillance and track-plates to detect crossing events over seven consecutive nights per season in each monitored culvert. We evaluate the relative importance of dry ledges on culvert use and compare the number of road-kills within a 100 m buffer radius around the culverts before and after fence installation and culverts that were never fenced (control culverts). Although different species responded to culvert features differently, the presence of dry ledges was the most relevant feature explaining crossing events, in particular, for stone martens and genets. The fencing used did not reduce mammals road-kill prevalence. Our results imply that in order to improve culvert use, road managers should take into account the placement of ledges on culverts that remain flooded most of the year (more than 3 cm of water-depth). We also suggest exploring the role of ledge size and construction materials to increase the likelihood of being used by foxes and badgers. Palabras clave: Barrier

Data and Resources

Cite as

Villalva P. Reto D. Santos-Reis M. Revilla E. y Grilo C. Do dry ledges reduce the barrier effect of roads?. Elsevier, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2013.04.005

Clipboard Icon
Retrieved: 18 Dec 2025 11:03:25
RIS BibTeX

Metadata
Download
DCAT-AP/NTI-RISP

Basic information
Resource type Text
Date of creation 2025-05-23
Date of last revision 2025-05-23
Show changelog
Metadata identifier 21583602-05d7-5ff6-9ab9-a6da8272f252
Metadata language Spanish
Themes (NTI-RISP)
High-value dataset category
ISO 19115 topic category biota
Keyword URIs
Bibliographic information
Name of the dataset creator Villalva, P., Reto, D., Santos-Reis, M., Revilla, E. y Grilo, C.
Name of the dataset editor Elsevier
Other identifier DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2013.04.005
Identifier of the dataset creator
Email of the dataset creator
Website of the dataset creator
Provenance
Lineage statement
Metadata Standard
Version notes
Version