Levantamento bibliográfico de publicações sobre atropelamento da fauna em rodovias brasileiras

Abstract

Access roads are fundamental for economic development and vehicle transport; however, they also cause negative impacts, such as fragmenting the landscape and altering the natural habitat. Furthermore, the flow of vehicles can result in wildlife being run over, posing a threat to the conservation of species in different biomes. Therefore, the objective of this study was to carry out a bibliographical survey of scientific articles on the running over of wildlife on highways in Brazil. To this end, articles were consulted on three search portals: Scielo, Scopus and Web of Science, using nine keywords in Portuguese and English. Various aspects of the publications' bibliometric data were analyzed, including the year of publication, the journal, the impact factor, the number of citations and the coverage of the journals. Aspects related to the content of the articles were also examined, such as the taxonomic category and quantification of individuals run over, the level of threat of extinction of the affected groups, the highways and the state of being run over, as well as the proximity of the places of being run over in relation to the conservation units. After the search and preliminary reading, 13 articles on pedestrian accidents were selected, published between 2006 and 2023, 85% of which were in international journals. In the selected articles, roadkills were studied on 23 highways, with 4,240 animals being run over. Roadkills predominated in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil, with the mammalia class responsible for 45% of cases, amphiabia (20%), reptilia (16%) and birds (11%). Among these, 33 species presented some level of threat of extinction, a more serious problem for animals with a large habitat area and low reproductive rates. It is concluded that the scarcity of studies on fauna being run over highlights the need to expand knowledge in the area to develop more effective strategies for mitigating and preserving wildlife.