Articles
Impact of Vehicular Traffic on Herpetofaunal Mortality in a Savanna Forest, Eastern Sri Lanka
Authors:
- DMS Suranjan KarunarathnaEmail DMS Suranjan Karunarathna
- Sujan M Henkanaththegedara
- AA Thasun Amarasinghe
- Anslem de Silva
Abstract
Mortality of wildlife due to vehicular traffic is among the direct impacts when natural habitats are dissected with roads. This study presents the herpetofaunal mortality on a 3km stretch of a highway crossing Nilgala Forest Area (NFA), a savanna dominated forest in Nilgala, eastern Sri Lanka. A total of 72 species of herpetofauna including 53 reptiles and 19 amphibians were recorded as road kills of which 19 species (26.3%) are endemic to Sri Lanka and 22 species (30.5%) are threatened nationally. A total of 552 road killed individuals (23.6% of tetrapod reptiles, 40.2% of serpentoid reptiles and 36.2% amphibians) were recorded over 48 days.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/tapro.v5i2.6284
TAPROBANICA, December, 2013. Vol. 05, No. 02: pp. 111-119
- Year: 2013
- Volume: 5 Issue: 2
- Page/Article: 111-119
- DOI: 10.4038/tapro.v5i2.6284
- Published on 24 Dec 2013
- Peer Reviewed