Dry drainage culvert use and design considerations for small- and medium–sized mammal movement across a major transportation corridor
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Published source details
Clevenger A.P. & Waltho N. (1999) Dry drainage culvert use and design considerations for small- and medium–sized mammal movement across a major transportation corridor. Proceedings of the 1999 International Conference on Wildlife Ecology and Transportation, Florida Department of Transportation, Tallahassee, Florida USA, 264-270.
Published source details Clevenger A.P. & Waltho N. (1999) Dry drainage culvert use and design considerations for small- and medium–sized mammal movement across a major transportation corridor. Proceedings of the 1999 International Conference on Wildlife Ecology and Transportation, Florida Department of Transportation, Tallahassee, Florida USA, 264-270.
Actions
This study is summarised as evidence for the following.
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Install barrier fencing and underpasses along roads Action Link |
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Install barrier fencing and underpasses along roads
A study in 1999 along a highway in Alberta, Canada (Clevenger & Waltho 1999) found that drainage culverts, in areas with roadside wildlife exclusion fencing, were used by small- and medium-sized mammals. Crossings at 24 culverts included snowshoe hare Lepus americanus (13 crossings at 8 culverts), red squirrel Tamiasciurus hudsonicus (6 crossings at 4 culverts), deer mouse Peromyscus maniculatus (161 crossings at 14 culverts), voles Arvicolinae spp. (5 crossings at 3 culverts) and shrews Sorex spp. (43 crossings at 16 culverts). Weasels Mustela sp., and martens Martes americana also used culverts. Culvert use positively correlated with traffic volume and road width (hare, squirrel, vole), road clearance (squirrel) and culvert length (hare, vole) and negatively correlated with distance to cover (vole), age (hare, squirrel) and openness (squirrel, vole). Shrews preferred larger, more open culverts. Vegetation cover effected use by hares, squirrels and voles. The Trans-Canada highway was expanded to four lanes, with 2.4-m-high wildlife exclusion fencing, in three sections, completed in 1986, 1988 and 1997. Twenty-four drainage culverts were monitored along a 55-km highway section, using multiple sooted track-plates (75 × 30 cm) in each culvert. Plates were checked weekly in January–March 1999. Structural and landscape variables were recorded at culverts.
(Summarised by: Rebecca K. Smith)
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