Records from systematic studies
We searched for roadkill survey conducted in Ecuador and described in
peer-reviewed publications and theses. This search was performed in
English and Spanish (official language of Ecuador) using the keywords
“roadkill Ecuador”, “wildlife mortality Ecuador”, “amphibians
roadkills Ecuador”, “birds roadkills Ecuador”, “mammals roadkills
Ecuador”, “reptiles roadkills Ecuador”, “snakes roadkills Ecuador”,
“frogs roadkills Ecuador”, “atropellamiento fauna Ecuador”,
“atropellamiento anfibios Ecuador”, “atropellamiento aves Ecuador”,
“atropellamiento mamíferos Ecuador”, “atropellamiento reptiles
Ecuador”, “atropellamiento serpientes Ecuador”, “atropellamiento
sapos Ecuador”, “atropellamiento ranas Ecuador”. When a study was
located, but the roadkill records were not available, we contacted
authors asking to provide their data.
From each identified study we collected: taxonomic information of
roadkilled organisms, number of roadkills per species or lowest
identified taxonomic group, length of road surveyed, survey method (car,
motorcycle, bicycle, or walking), time interval between surveys, total
sampling period, and geographic coordinates of each roadkill record if
available. As original records could include synonyms or obsolete
species names, we additionally provide taxonomic information
standardized using the IUCN nomenclature. We removed any records of
domestic and farm animals. For each study we then calculated roadkill
rates per species (only specimens identified to species were considered)
by dividing the total number of records by the total length in
kilometers of the surveyed road(s) and the total sampling period (days)
(number of days between the first day until the last day of fieldwork).
This value was converted to number of individuals per km per year
(ind./km/year) multiplying by 365. Standardized rates allow comparison
of road mortality among species and areas where systematic studies have
been conducted.