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29th Annual Meeting and Symposium of the
Desert Tortoise Council, February 20-23, 2004
Abstracts
Mitigation for Wildlife Mortality on a Highway through Paynes Prairie State Preserve in North-Central Florida
Lora L. Smith1,2, C. Kenneth Dodd, Jr.2, and
William J. Barichivich2
1Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center, Route 2 Box
2324, Newton, Georgia 39870
2U.S. Geological Survey, Florida Integrated Science Center,
7929 NW 71st Street, Gainesville, Florida 32653
There have been numerous reports of significant mortality of amphibians and reptiles on U.S. Highway 441 across Paynes Prairie in Alachua County, Florida. In addition to mortality of individual animals, the roadway was thought to act as a nearly impenetrable barrier to movements of some species. Although snakes and frogs comprised the majority of kills, more than 60 species of vertebrates have been reported killed on this 3.2 km stretch of highway. In 2000, the Florida Department of Transportation began construction of a barrier wall and underpass system (ecopassage) to reduce wildlife mortality by directing snakes and other vertebrates through culverts beneath the road. Prior to construction of the ecopassage system, we conducted a year-long survey to determine pre-construction mortality levels. These data, and those of a post-construction survey, were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the ecopassage system in decreasing or preventing vertebrate mortality. During the post-construction survey, we counted only 158 animals, excluding hylid treefrogs, killed in the same area where 2,411 road kills were recorded in the 12 months prior to the construction of the barrier wall-culvert system. The 24-hour kill rate during the post-construction survey was 4.9 compared with 13.5 during the pre-construction survey. We detected 51 vertebrate species, including 9 fish, using the 8 culverts after the construction of the barrier wall-culvert system, compared with 28 vertebrate species in the 4 existing culverts prior to construction. Capture success in culverts increased 10-fold from the pre-construction survey to the post-construction survey.
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