WELCOME TO THE CFZ BLOG NETWORK: COME AND JOIN THE FUN

Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

Search This Blog

WATCH OUR WEEKLY WEBtv SHOW

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON
Click on this logo to find out more about helping CFZtv and getting some smashing rewards...

SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

Check it out here


Unlike some of our competitors we are not going to try and blackmail you into donating by saying that we won't continue if you don't. That would just be vulgar, but our lives, and those of the animals which we look after, would be a damn sight easier if we receive more donations to our fighting fund. Donate via Paypal today...




Tuesday, June 21, 2011

PASSAGE OF AMPHIBIANS ACROSS ROADS

EFFECTIVE CULVERT PLACEMENT AND DESIGN TO FACILITATE PASSAGE OF
AMPHIBIANS ACROSS ROADS

Journal of Herpetology 44(4): 618-626

David A. Patrick, Christopher M. Schalk, James P. Gibbs & Hara W. Woltz

Abstract: Efficient deployment of culverts to mitigate mortality of amphibians on roadways requires identification of locations within road networks where animals cross (hotspots), points within identified hotspots for culvert placement, and attributes of culverts that make them behaviorally palatable to migrating individuals. In this study, we assessed road crossing frequency of Spotted Salamanders, Ambystoma maculatum, and American Toads, Anaxyrus americanus, along a 700-m transect within a known crossing hotspot, and related these distributions to habitat variables within the hotspot including the presence of existing culverts. We also placed experimental arrays of culverts of varying attributes in the path of migrating Spotted Salamanders to examine culvert preference by salamanders under typical movement environments and appropriate animal behavioral states. Our studies of patterns of road occurrence demonstrated that both species avoided crossing where there was a wetl!
and within 15 m of the downslope of the road and that neither species showed a strong preference for crossing near existing culverts. When considering the choice for experimental culverts by Spotted Salamanders, we found no preference for culverts of varying aperture size, length, or substrate. Our results indicate that patterns of occurrences of the two species of amphibian within a crossing hotspot may be linked to the physical attributes at the site. For Spotted Salamanders in particular, predicting where they will cross within a hotspot may not be easy. Spotted Salamanders showed little preference for culverts of different design, indicating that a variety of culvert designs can suffice for mitigation if placed in appropriate locations.

*****

A pdf of this article is available from the CNAH PDF Library at

http://www.cnah.org/cnah_pdf.asp
Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.2
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)