Movement re-established but not restored: inferring the effectiveness of road-crossing mitigation for a gliding mammal by monitoring use.

Wildlife crossing structures are commonly used to mitigate the barrier and mortality impacts of roads on wildlife. For arboreal mammals, canopy bridges, glider poles and vegetated medians are used to provide safe passage across roads. However, the effectiveness of these measures is unknown. We investigate the effect of canopy bridges, glider poles and vegetated medians on squirrel glider movement across a freeway in south-east Australia. We monitored structures directly using motion-triggered cameras and passive integrated transponder (PIT) scanners. Further, post-mitigation radio-tracking was compared to a pre-mitigation study. Squirrel gliders used all structure types to cross the freeway, while the unmitigated freeway remained a barrier to movement. However, movement was not restored to the levels observed at non-freeway sites. Nevertheless, based on the number and frequency of individuals crossing, mitigation is likely to provide some level of functional connectivity. The rate of crossing increased over several years as animals habituated to the structure. We also found that crossing rate can be a misleading indicator of effectiveness if the number of individuals crossing is not identified. Therefore, studies should employ long-term monitoring and identify individuals crossing if inferences about population connectivity are to be made from movement data alone.

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Soanes K. Carmody Lobo M. Vesk P.A. McCarthy M.A. Moore J.L. y van der Ree R. Movement re-established but not restored: inferring the effectiveness of road-crossing mitigation for a gliding mammal by monitoring use. Elsevier, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2012.10.016

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Resource type Text
Date of creation 2025-05-23
Date of last revision 2025-05-23
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Metadata identifier 55d14753-69c6-50e9-8564-7f374e6bcbe9
Metadata language Spanish
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ISO 19115 topic category biota
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Name of the dataset creator Soanes, K., Carmody Lobo, M., Vesk, P.A., McCarthy, M.A., Moore, J.L. y van der Ree, R.
Name of the dataset editor Elsevier
Other identifier DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2012.10.016
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