Animal Adaptations: Evolution of Forms and Functions

Product Information

Jaarsma, C. F., van Langevelde, F. & Botma, H. Flattened fauna and mitigation: traffic victims related to road, traffic, vehicle, and species characteristics. Transp. Res. Part D 11, 264–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2006.05.001 (2006).

ESRI. ArcGIS Desktop: Release 10.8. Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute. (2020). accessed 12 Jan 2019; www.esri.com. We placed vehicle input points at the beginning of the link, and data collection points midway along the road, and specified the hourly traffic volume at each vehicle input point. The average harmonic speed of traffic flow at each traffic volume and free flow speeds of different traffic components were selected as data collection measurement attributes (outputs of the simulation). Each simulation was run for 600 s (10 min) with 20 replicates. Simulation resolution of 10 time steps/second was set to maximize speed data collection at data collection points. Species characteristics D’Amico, M., Periquet, S., Roman, J. & Revilla, E. Road avoidance responses determine the impact of heterogeneous road networks at a regional scale. J. Appl. Ecol. 53(1), 181–190. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12572 (2015). Among the six study species, lowest AVC probabilities were observed for tiger and leopard, primarily because these are solitary fast moving species. Body size had negligible effect on AVC probability 23, but increase in group size increased the probability resulting in higher AVC probabilities for group living species. Among social species, lower group size of sambar translated to lower AVC probability than chital and wild pig, despite having similar maximum running speeds. Group size of gaur was similar to that of wild pig; yet gaur had the highest AVC probabilities across all heterogeneity scenarios as a result of its low running speed.We demonstrated the applicability of the traversability model to determine species-specific AVC probabilities and AVC risk across different traffic heterogeneity and traffic volume scenarios. We found that slow moving animals and animals with large group sizes were at higher risk of AVC as a consequence of greater time required to traverse roads. Further, AVC probability is expected to be greater on wider roads, particularly high traffic roads with predominantly heavy vehicles. Langevelde, F. & Jaarsma, C. F. Using traffic flow theory to model traffic mortality in mammals. Landsc. Ecol. 19, 895–907 (2004).

The transportation infrastructure of a nation is vital for its social and economic growth, especially for a developing economy. However, the construction and operation of roads come at great costs to wildlife and forests dissected by linear infrastructure 1, 2. The most conspicuous impact of roads is wildlife-vehicle collisions, which is a major cause of decline in animal populations in human-dominated landscapes 3. Road-related mortality affects animal populations more adversely than natural mortality since it is non-selective, and affects healthy and unhealthy individuals of a population equally 4, 5. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there is at present no proof to propose that COVID-19 can be transmitted through food consumption or food bundling, but food safety practices are highly encouraged [15]. Percentage chemosuppression of the aqueous stem bark extracts of Alstonia boonei (De wild) in mice infected with the Chloroquine- sensitive strain of plasmodium berghei (NK-65)We photo-captured a total of 6043 photographs across 23 mammals, and 3624 images of our study species. The total sampling effort was 3024 camera-days at 216 camera trapping locations. Tiger and leopard were not considered for this analysis owing to low number of captures (n = 12 and n = 1 respectively) and larger home ranges as compared to the trapping area. Rhodes, J. R., Lunney, D., Callaghan, J. & McAlpine, C. A. A few large roads or many small ones? How to accommodate growth in vehicle number to minimise impacts on wildlife. PLoS ONE 9(3), e91093 (2014).

As in the aforementioned studies 8, 23, 37, the aim of the study is not to determine the actual number of mortalities, but to help determine high-risk roads, traffic compositions and species groups most vulnerable to collision and barrier effects. Our model defines a way to identify components of a road network most vulnerable to roadkill, and could be used to identify road network components requiring prioritised mitigation action. In the absence of data on animal movement near roads, the present approach using species traits and behaviour could help prioritise mitigation for species most vulnerable to collision with vehicles. Leblond, M., Dussault, C. & Ouellet, J.-P. Avoidance of roads by large herbivores and its relation to disturbance intensity. J. Zool. 289, 32–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2012.00959.x (2013). Velmurugan, S., Errampalli, M., Ravinder, K., Sitaramanjaneyulu, K. & Gangopadhyay, S. Critical evaluation of roadway capacity of multi-lane high speed corridors under heterogeneous traffic conditions through traditional and microscopic simulation models. Journal of Indian Roads Congress (October–December 2010) 235–264 (2010). accessed 23 Mar 2019; https://www.crridom.gov.in/Majumder, A. Prey Selection, Food Habits and Population Structure of Sympatric Carnivores: Tiger Panthera tigris tigris (L.), Leopard Panthera pardus (L.) and Dhole Cuon alpinus (Pallas) in Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh (India) (Saurashtra University, Rajkot, 2011). The behaviour of animals, in terms of activity patterns in the vicinity of roads, was incorporated into the model in the form of AVC risk, which is the AVC probability under a specific hourly traffic volume for a species, multiplied by the activity (hourly detection probability) of the animal near the road. The untreated group of mice infected with the chloroquine sensitive strain, P. berghei recorded a significant (p<0.05) reduction in PCV, Hb, RBC, MCV and neutrophils observably from day 8-14 post infection ( Table 3, 4). While lymphocytes, WBC and platelets counts increased significantly (p<0.05) from day 8-14 postinfection in infected but untreated mice. The aqueous extract of A. boonei was formulated in distilled water corresponding to the dosages 100, 200, 400 and 800 mg kg -1 b.wt. of mice and the standard antimalarial Chloroquine (5 mg kg -1 b.wt. of mice) were also prepared.