Permeability of roads and railways to vertebrates: the importance of culverts

Culverts seem to increase the permeability of roads and railways for a wide set of vertebrate groups (amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, lagomorphs, and carnivores). None of the three culverts having detritus pits in the sample studied by these authors was used by lagomorphs and carnivores, in contrast with results obtained by Rodríguez et al. (1996, 1997). The presence of these pits also negatively influenced the use of culverts by reptiles. This could be interpreted as a physical (rabbits) or behavioural obstacle (carnivores, reptiles) which might lower locally (around the passages) the permeability of the infrastructure to the transversal movement of these vertebrates, as compared with sites where culverts have no pits. Culverts are thought to function as a link between disturbed roadside verges, which make up suitable habitats for small mammals. Structural heterogeneity provided by debris accumulated inside culverts might further improve habitat continuity for these animals. However, small mammals were very sensitive to culvert dimensions: they were more prone to use short culverts with large sections. Rodríguez et al. (1996) found the opposite preference. However roadside verges are not always suitable for medium-sized mammals (rabbits and carnivores) which together with the width of the infrastructure affected negatively crossing frequencies across culverts and, consequently, local permeability. Access to culvert entrances to medium-sized and large mammals (mainly ungulates) is often blocked by roadside fences, which usually are 2 m high.

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Yanes M. Velasco J.M. y Suárez F. Permeability of roads and railways to vertebrates: the importance of culverts. Elsevier, 1995. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3207(94)00028-O

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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 2063b7c2-f31f-5965-aa0e-b787b8c5eb6a
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Name of the dataset creator Yanes, M., Velasco, J.M. y Suárez, F.
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Other identifier DOI: 10.1016/0006-3207(94)00028-O
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