Amphibian road kills: a global perspective

Transportation infrastructure is a major factor determining land use forms. As global changes in this factor are the most important for biodiversity, roads fundamentally influence wildlife. The effect of roads on wildlife has been categorized in several ways resulting in six to ten categories with road kill as an obvious and important component, and amphibians are greatly affected by this factor. As this animal group has been documented to decline from multiple threats worldwide, the study and mitigation of their deaths on roads has become an important conservation priority. It was also detected as a single cause of decline, and data have accumulated on related population fluctuations, isolation, decline, and extinction in several countries. Genetics studies greatly improve our insight into these processes, e.g., by repeatedly proving significantly low heterozigocy in populations of several species living near roads. Amphibian road kills have been long documented and described due to their spectacular nature, but the overall effect of transportation infrastructure on amphibians was often underestimated due to contrasting research results. The speed of transport and the duration and timing of the surveys in which information was collected turned out to be decisive factors, causing differences of 5.5-16 times the number of road-killed amphibians recorded, mainly in connection with the low visibility and retention time of amphibians on roads. In light of such amphibian-related differences, the often cited national road kill estimates may well be considerably higher in practice, as well. Amphibian road mortality studies have been conducted almost exclusively in developed countries, mostly in Europe and North America, and under temperate zone conditions. In general, all terrestrial and semi-aquatic amphibian species can suffer from road kills where they have populations near roads. However, different amphibian species are threatened to a different extent by traffic because of their specific life history characteristics. Besides amphibian- specific factors (amphibian movement types, length and direction of movement, velocity, temporal movement pattern, behavioural changes on roads), the spatio-temporal pattern of amphibian road kill is also influenced by habitat and transportation characteristics (especially aquatic habitats and vegation, road density, traffic intensity, vehicle speed, position and structure of roads, and awareness of drivers, respectively) and weather conditions (precipitation, temperature, wind). The effect of these factors must be understood before the need for mitigation can be evaluated and measures designed and built. Many mitigation measures have been built since the first amphibian tunnels were created in 1969 near Zürich, Switzerland, and a high diversity of technical solutions successfully reduced amphibian road kills under different conditions. New research results have shown that amphibian tunnels can also be permeable for reptiles, such as snakes and small mammals. However, the lack of maintenance and construction deficiencies are common problems, which lower the efficiency of these measures worldwide. Road kills also have socio-ecological importance. Successful road-kill related projects have the potential to improve the understanding of decision-makers regarding road-related problems, also leading to their support of more complex conservation projects, including, for example, habitat restoration or compensatory developments near roads. Using the media to educate the general public about conservation efforts to reduce road kill, such as setting up frog fences in the USA and toad saving campaigns in Europe, clearly helps to realise this aim by influencing support provided by various authorities