Less charismatic animals are more likely to be “road killed”: human attitudes towards small animals in Brazilian roads
Roads are long and intermittent sources of wildlife loss due to their indirect effects, such as fragmentation of habitat, or their direct effects, such as constant mortality by run-over. Thus, some studies indicate that a portion of these run-over incidents may be intentional and could be avoided....
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
2014-12-01
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| Series: | Biotemas |
| Online Access: | https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/biotemas/article/view/34031 |
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| author | Paulo C. M. D. Mesquita Victor Mendes Lipinski George Lucas Sá Polidoro |
| author_facet | Paulo C. M. D. Mesquita Victor Mendes Lipinski George Lucas Sá Polidoro |
| author_sort | Paulo C. M. D. Mesquita |
| collection | DOAJ |
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Roads are long and intermittent sources of wildlife loss due to their indirect effects, such as fragmentation of habitat, or their direct effects, such as constant mortality by run-over. Thus, some studies indicate that a portion of these run-over incidents may be intentional and could be avoided. We investigated whether various groups of small animals had different run-over rates and how “charisma” affects the survival chances of an animal on the roads. During our experiment, we quantified run-over rates for models of spiders, snakes, chicks, and tree leaves (control) on three roads with different traffic volumes. We found out that snakes and spiders were consistently ran over with a higher frequency than chicks and leaves. We also observed that chicks were the only models rescued by human beings. We concluded that the survival chances of chicks are the highest among the models tested and this is due to the charismatic value attributed to them by human beings, when compared to snakes and spiders. We suggest the broadcasting of campaigns in the media to increase public awareness regarding wildlife conservation as a useful tool to solve the problem of intentional run over of small animals.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c691b6dcd6544bd8a4efa802ba6eb968 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 0103-1643 2175-7925 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2014-12-01 |
| publisher | Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Biotemas |
| spelling | doaj-art-c691b6dcd6544bd8a4efa802ba6eb9682025-08-20T02:51:00ZengUniversidade Federal de Santa CatarinaBiotemas0103-16432175-79252014-12-0128110.5007/2175-7925.2015v28n1p8523022Less charismatic animals are more likely to be “road killed”: human attitudes towards small animals in Brazilian roadsPaulo C. M. D. Mesquita0Victor Mendes Lipinski1George Lucas Sá Polidoro2Laboratório de Herpetologia, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. Avenida Roraima, 1000. CEP 97105-900, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, BrazilLaboratório de Herpetologia, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. Avenida Roraima, 1000. CEP 97105-900, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, BrazilLaboratório de Herpetologia, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. Avenida Roraima, 1000. CEP 97105-900, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Roads are long and intermittent sources of wildlife loss due to their indirect effects, such as fragmentation of habitat, or their direct effects, such as constant mortality by run-over. Thus, some studies indicate that a portion of these run-over incidents may be intentional and could be avoided. We investigated whether various groups of small animals had different run-over rates and how “charisma” affects the survival chances of an animal on the roads. During our experiment, we quantified run-over rates for models of spiders, snakes, chicks, and tree leaves (control) on three roads with different traffic volumes. We found out that snakes and spiders were consistently ran over with a higher frequency than chicks and leaves. We also observed that chicks were the only models rescued by human beings. We concluded that the survival chances of chicks are the highest among the models tested and this is due to the charismatic value attributed to them by human beings, when compared to snakes and spiders. We suggest the broadcasting of campaigns in the media to increase public awareness regarding wildlife conservation as a useful tool to solve the problem of intentional run over of small animals. https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/biotemas/article/view/34031 |
| spellingShingle | Paulo C. M. D. Mesquita Victor Mendes Lipinski George Lucas Sá Polidoro Less charismatic animals are more likely to be “road killed”: human attitudes towards small animals in Brazilian roads Biotemas |
| title | Less charismatic animals are more likely to be “road killed”: human attitudes towards small animals in Brazilian roads |
| title_full | Less charismatic animals are more likely to be “road killed”: human attitudes towards small animals in Brazilian roads |
| title_fullStr | Less charismatic animals are more likely to be “road killed”: human attitudes towards small animals in Brazilian roads |
| title_full_unstemmed | Less charismatic animals are more likely to be “road killed”: human attitudes towards small animals in Brazilian roads |
| title_short | Less charismatic animals are more likely to be “road killed”: human attitudes towards small animals in Brazilian roads |
| title_sort | less charismatic animals are more likely to be road killed human attitudes towards small animals in brazilian roads |
| url | https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/biotemas/article/view/34031 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT paulocmdmesquita lesscharismaticanimalsaremorelikelytoberoadkilledhumanattitudestowardssmallanimalsinbrazilianroads AT victormendeslipinski lesscharismaticanimalsaremorelikelytoberoadkilledhumanattitudestowardssmallanimalsinbrazilianroads AT georgelucassapolidoro lesscharismaticanimalsaremorelikelytoberoadkilledhumanattitudestowardssmallanimalsinbrazilianroads |