Mitigating Road Mortality of Wildlife in Rouge National Urban Park

Session: Poster Session

Courtney Leermakers, University of Toronto, Scarborough, [email protected]
Marc Cadotte, Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, [email protected]
Nicholas Mandrak, Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, [email protected]

Abstract

As urban development continues to grow, so do road networks to connect human landscapes and, consequently, this disrupts the movement of wildlife across the natural landscape. One method of mitigating road mortality is the use of an ecopassage to provide safe crossing. However, before determining placement of an ecopassage, it is important to consider how the threat of road mortality is spatially and temporally distributed, which can be related to distance to nearest wetland, traffic volume, seasonal movement, weather, basking for thermoregulation, and landscape characteristics. To determine road mortality hotspots, road surveys recording live and dead on-road wildlife were completed in the Rouge National Urban Park along three different road segments, which intersect forested habitat and wetland complexes. Overall, this project is important to ensure safe wildlife passage across roads by providing guidance on placement of ecopassages.