Road sign in Brazil warns motorists that monkeys are frequently seen in the area.Credit: Nicola Cooke
A database to record the deaths of primates killed by cars and motorbikes might seem macabre, but for its developers it is a valuable open-access resource to inform further research into road ecology and to improve conservation planning, road design and lobbying needed to adequately protect such species.
The database was initiated in 2020 by Laura Praill as part of her recent studies in primate conservation at Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom. It was compiled using published and unpublished data, social media and anecdotal reports, and by using professional networks, notes Praill, who now works for the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon.
A paper in the journal Animals notes that by February 2023 the database included 2862 roadkill incidents, involving at least 107 primate species, from 41 countries. Researchers from Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Peru, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, contributed to the Animals paper. “It is useful as it keeps all incidents of primate roadkill in one place, making it easier to identify hotspots, cold spots with little or no data, at-risk species and patterns,” says Praill.
While many research projects focus on the impact of habitat loss and fragmentation on primate populations, not many have looked into the role of road accidents on their numbers. “The loss of just one primate to a vehicular collision is a tragedy, but for some populations, the loss of one individual can hugely impact the persistence of the local population,” Praill notes.
In the design and management of roads, primates’ immediate environments has to be taken into account,” says Vincent Nijman, a professor in anthropology at Oxford Brookes University, a co-author of the Animals paper. Praill cites a langur project in Malaysia and a red colobus project in Zanzibar as examples of how information gathered in country-specific roadkill databases have helped to inform the need for potentially life-saving strategies such as speed bumps or canopy bridges to reduce primate roadkill.
The database currently only includes reports from 41 countries, fewer than half of countries in which primates are found. “The absence of data from some countries is not necessarily indicative of a lack of primate vehicular collisions, simply that we need researchers and citizen scientists on the ground to be aware of the issue and start to report such cases,” says Praill. Co-author, Wendy Collinson, of the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) that operates in southern and east Africa, says a global “snapshot” of areas of most decline for primate habitat and populations can inform where best to implement interventions known to prevent deaths or injury. The EWT uses citizen science data collected through its roadkill sightings app to identify hotspot areas and species most at risk.
“The challenge is finding people to gather long term datasets that can highlight trends for species most at risk from linear infrastructure, such as roads, rail, pipeline, powerlines,” notes Collinson, who has promoted the gathering of wildlife road mortality data in South Africa for the EWT. Most recently, this has resulted in an inventory of amphibian roadkill in parts of the Limpopo province of South Africa, as set out in the African Journal of Herpetology.
Collison is one of the organisers behind the Global Conference on Linear Infrastructure and Ecology (GCLIE), to be held online from 14 to 15 September 2023, and the African Conference on Linear Infrastructure and Ecology (ACLIE) from 18 to 21 September 2023 in Kenya.
