On the Road Again: Assessing the Use of Roadsides as Wildlife Corridors for Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus)
| Autor: | M. Rebecca Bolt, Christopher L. Parkinson, Scott A. Martin, Bridget A. Vincent, Katelyn Lanctot, Richard A. Seigel, Rhett M. Rautsaw |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
education.field_of_study Habitat fragmentation Tortoise biology Ecology Home range Population Small population size Wildlife corridor biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences 010601 ecology Habitat Polyphemus Animal Science and Zoology education Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Herpetology. 52:136-144 |
| ISSN: | 0022-1511 |
| DOI: | 10.1670/17-013 |
| Popis: | Small populations resulting from the impacts of habitat fragmentation are prone to increased risks of extinction because of a lack of population connectivity. Roads increase habitat fragmentation, but properly managed roadsides may be able to function as wildlife corridors. Here we use radiotelemetry to observe movement patterns of Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) along potential roadside corridors at the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, USA, to determine if tortoises use roadsides as movement pathways between larger habitat patches or as residential habitat. Additionally, we translocated tortoises to study the feasibility of roadsides to function as movement corridors. We found that roadsides are not used as a movement pathway but rather as an apparent long-term residential habitat. Only one tortoise was observed exiting the roadside corridor, and minimum convex polygon (MCP) home range sizes and distances traveled remain similar to those exhibited by tortoises in larger habi... |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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