Roads are integral to the continued development and prosperity of South Africa’s economy. However, roads have the potential to fragment habitats and wildlife populations. Traffic, particularly when reckless driving is involved, can have a direct negative impact on wildlife, with many species at risk from wildlife-vehicle-collisions, often resulting in an animal’s death, or ‘roadkill’.
In 2014, the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s (EWT) Wildlife and Roads Project partnered with N3 Toll Concession (N3TC) to provide measures to reduce the impact of roads on wildlife, and to expand public awareness of roadkill campaigns.
N3TC, as the concessionaire responsible for the N3 Toll Route between Cedara in KwaZulu-Natal and Heidelberg in Gauteng, commissioned the EWT to analyse the roadkill data on its behalf. It is the first initiative of its kind by a company managing a transport corridor in South Africa. The initial pilot project has now been extended.
Through this partnership, training workshops for data collection and species identification have been provided to N3TC route patrol teams in order to capacitate them to record and submit sightings of dead animals killed on the road.
The EWT’s Wildlife and Roads Project originated in 2011 around the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area in northern Limpopo where the EWT recorded 1 121 animal deaths along a 100 km stretch of road in just 120 days. Insurance claims suggest approximately R82.5-million is paid each year against collisions with wildlife, but we don’t have a grasp on the concomitant cost to our biodiversity.
Roads cut wildlife habitats up into to smaller chunks. For some wildlife, roads act as a barrier to movement and it may actually cause animal populations to fragment into smaller, less functional groups. This can have a negative impact on the health and viability of the population as a whole.
However, this project focuses entirely on animal fatalities along a particular section of road. It monitors and analyses all reported animal road deaths from birds to livestock. At this stage, the data collected provides numbers of animals found dead on the road, species that are being killed and their location on the N3 Toll Route.
We recently joined a N3TC route patrol team for a twelve-hour shift to experience first-hand how patrollers operate and collect data on behalf of the EWT. During this period, a number of roadkill were identified including a Serval, African Civet, Black-backed Jackal, Scrub Hare and Spotted Thick-Knee.
“We have noticed that the movement of animals, seasonal migration and changes in habitat may cause some animals to be more vulnerable at certain times,” says Con Roux, N3TC’s Commercial Manager.
“Drivers most often do not expect to find animals in the road and very seldom adopt driver behaviour which considers such an eventuality. Once we have a better understanding of the occurrence and causes of wildlife-road-mortality, we can help to improve driver education and general awareness,” explains Roux.
N3TC route patrollers have been collecting data of animal fatalities as part of their daily monitoring of the route since 2014. During each patrol, the patrollers drive two sweeps of the N3 Toll Route. Sightings of dead animals are phoned through to a central data collection point for purpose of centralised recording. The EWT’s Wildlife and Roads project team provided the teams with training to assist with the accurate identification of species and improve the quality of data collected.
As the project develops, the EWT and N3TC will be able to have a better understanding of the impact of the road on wildlife and what measures need to put in place to reduce the risks and also expand public awareness campaigns to ensure not only the safety of people, but of our wildlife too.
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