Nota+de+Prensa+(English)


 * Roads: cemetery of turtles **

Roads have become genuine murderers of many animal species. Freshwater turtles have to risk their lives trying to cross the road due to reproduction. A recent study by Tom A. Langen et al. analyzes a high number of road kills of several species of freshwater turtles (Chelydra serpentina, Chrysemys picta and Emydoidea blandingii) on a stretch of highway in a county of New York. The main cause behind this mass mortality is the habitat fragmentation of said Testudines. They should put their lives in harm’s way in order to complete their life cycle. The majority of the roadkills are concentrated in points with a high traffic volume, close to water bodies and with a large vegetation cover. According to Tom A. Langen et al. research these areas “encompassed only 3 % of the transect, but we recorded 33 % of all dead turtles”. The biggest impact was observed in reproductively active females as they have to move further due to the search of a mate or nest sites. If the mortality increases gradually birth also reduces in future generations and that can generate the disappearance of the species, and thus the roles, such as pest control, which is vital to many human activities. Despite its hard bony shell it is impossible for them to deal with the tons applied by a vehicle when it runs over them. Is it worth risking the lives of creatures who were before the dinosaurs at the expense of gaining a few minutes at reaching our destination? Awareness about this problem and the biological importance of these little animals should be raised. Some proposed solutions are the avoidance of habitat fragmentation whenever is possible in future buildings, the improving of those places already deteriorated with the building of fauna passages, fences, overpasses, or simply by an adequate signalization that warn drivers in said hot spots. __**Annex**__ Numerous researchs about the road mortality of vertebrates have been made, i.e. in 2011 a study was made in order to evaluate such mortality in the roads of the Valencian Community with the sole purpose of reducing these accidents. It was observed that every year near half a million vertebrates perish in this fashion, of wich 15% are reptiles. Data is available in this site:[|__http://cma.gva.es/webdoc/documento.ashx?id=168512__] The original paper, “Road mortality in freshwater turtles: identifying causes of spatial patterns to optimize road planning and mitigation”, is available in the next link[|__http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-012-0352-9__]or in the scientific journal Biodiversity and Conservation (2012) vol 21, 3017–3034. For further information about this topic you can reach Tom A. Langen at the following e-mail: tlangen@clarkson.edu