A 10-year collection of roadkilled avifauna in a stretch of the BR-040 highway in southeastern Brazil

ABSTRACT In Brazil, the number of animals killed by vehicle collision surpasses 475 millions/year, but the actual number may be even higher since roadkill data in the country is scarce and punctual. Using a standard protocol, the project Caminhos da Fauna monitored since 2006 the avifauna roadkill in the BR-040 (RJ/MG) highway, southeastern Brazil. Here, we present a checklist of the avifauna registered during the 10-year monitoring program, including the list of roadkills, indicating threatening status at regional, national, and global levels, and the number of records/species. We registered 1,317 individuals belonging to 180 species, 21 orders, and 48 families. Another 247 individuals could not be identified. For seven families roadkills were higher than 50 individuals: Thraupidae, Cuculidae, Strigidae, Tyrannidae, Psittacidae, Columbidae, and Turdidae. The most collected species were Crotophaga ani (n = 106; Cuculidae), followed by Psittacara leucophthalmus (n = 61; Psittacidae), Piaya cayana (n = 56; Cuculidae), and Asio clamator (n = 44; Strigidae). Five species were under threat: Penelope obscura, Primolius maracana, Pteroglossus bailloni, Ramphastos vitellinus, and Sicalis flaveola. Most species were geographically widespread, while other 13 (7.2%) were endemic. Given the considerable amount of data obtained, further efforts of the same motivation in other Brazilian roads and express transportation systems should be encouraged.

Linear infrastructures such as roads are a common feature in contemporary landscapes and have major contributions to the high levels of biodiversity loss worldwide [1].In Brazil, the number of wildlifevehicle collisions (WVC) surpasses 475 millions/year [2], but the actual number can be even higher since several fatalities are not registered and roadkill data are scarce and punctual [3].Every year, millions of birds die as a consequence of WVC [4] and several factors affect the frequency of WVC such as: traffic density and noise, speed of the vehicles, weather, behavior, the habitat surrounding the road, and road characteristics [5,6].
Comprehensive information on WVC is not available in many countries.The lack of data is even higher on most biodiverse and developing countries in South and Central America and Southeast Asia, which affect how researchers evaluate the effect of roads on wildlife as well as build up mitigation measures [7].Since 2006, the pioneer program Caminhos da Fauna (Wildlife Pathways) monitors WVC in the BR-040 highway in the state of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), which crosses the biodiversity corridor of Serra do Mar, one of the most speciesrich areas in the Atlantic Forest [8], with high concentration of threatened species, including many avian species [9].Here, we present a checklist of the avifauna registered during the 10-year monitoring program, including the list of roadkill species following [10], indicating threatening status at regional, national, and global levels [11][12][13][14], and the number of records for each species (the ones useful to the ornithological collection of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro).Animals in advanced stage of putrefaction or considerably crushed by vehicles were not considered.
The monitoring program was carried out in the BR-040 highway, from km 125.2 to km 0 in the state of Rio de Janeiro and km 828.7 to km 773.5 in the state of Minas Gerais, in southeastern Brazil (Figure 1).Avifauna roadkill were collected in a 24/     3).Similar data from North American roads also attest the high number of owls roadkilled, which could be related to age, habitat availability, and irruptive migrations [16].
The high number of individuals from several species we have registered over the past 10 years was not surprising.Roads break habitats apart by reducing their amount, configuration, and quality [1], serve as migration routes [1], and offer a greater variety of food resources, e.g.garbage thrown into the roads by drivers, spilt grain after harvest or insects attracted by the heat of the road [1,4,6].Further efforts on other Brazilian roads and express transportation systems should be encouraged and the resulting data should be made available in scientific publications or official reports for important reasons such as: 1) conservation of endangered or poorly represented museum species, 2) direct efforts of environmental and engineering government and private agencies aiming to diminish/ avoid impacts from such man-made structures, 3) gather material to subsidize several lines of research.In this sense, this inventory filled a major knowledge gap of the roadkilled avian species in an important biodiversity hotspot, the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding
The work was supported by the Fundação Nacional de Desenvolvimento de Ensino Superior Particular .

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.BR-040 highway stretch where road-kill were recorded, from the km 125.2, near Duque de Caxias city in Rio de Janeiro State (RJ) to the km 773.5, near Juiz de Fora city in Minas Gerais State (MG), southeastern Brazil.
storage in freezers.Every week the specimens collected were taken to the ornithological collection of the Museu Nacional -Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), identified down to the least possible taxonomic rank, and prepared as study skins, skeletons, or stored whole in the spirits collection.Details of the study area and data collection can be found in Bueno et al.[15].Permit collection were issued by SISBIO License Number: 30727-12, Operation License Number: 1187/2013 and the Authorization for Capture, Collection and Transport of Biological Material-Abio Number: 514/ 2014.We recorded 1,317 individuals belonging to 180 species, 21 orders, and 48 families (Table1, Figure2).Another 247 individuals could not be identified.For seven families, we recorded more than 50 dead individuals: Thraupidae (N = 202), Cuculidae (N = 200), Strigidae (N = 125), Tyrannidae (N = 108), Psittacidae (N = 76), Columbidae (N = 62), and Turdidae (N = 61).The most collected species were Crotophaga ani (N = 106), followed by Psittacara leucophthalmus (N = 61), Piaya cayana (N = 56) and Asio clamator (N = 44).Most species are geographically widespread and 13 are endemic (, Thraupis ornata and Hemithraupis ruficapilla).Three species are included in the IUCN Red List: Primolius maracana (NT), Pteroglossus bailloni (NT), and Ramphastos vitellinus (VU).Other three are included in the endangered species list of Minas Gerais in the Vulnerable category: Penelope obscura, Sicalis flaveola, and Pteroglossus bailloni.No records are listed in the Rio de Janeiro's state or Brazilian national lists.Eight Tytonidae and Strigidae owl species were collected in the time span of the project (Tyto furcata, Asio clamator, Athene cunicularia, Glaucidium brasilianum, Megascops atricapilla, M. choliba, Pulsatrix koeniswaldiana, and Strix virgata), with a high number of records (N = 122, plus discarded ones) (Figure

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Specimens collected in a stretch of the BR-040 highway, southeastern Brazil.A) Female Tachyphonus coronatus, prepared with spread-wing posture.B) Volatinia jacarina full skeleton, conditioned in proper osteological collection box.C) Pionus maximiliani and Psittacara leucophthalmus study skins, incorporated in the collection.

Table 1 .
Species list and number of records of avifauna roadkill in the BR-040 highway, southeastern Brazil.