Citizen science and other records
Citizen science and other non-systematic records provided a smaller sample of 1705 roadkill records but offered a much wider geographical coverage than the systematic data with records from all 24 provinces of Ecuador (Figure 2). Most records were from ManabĂ­ province (362), Napo (302), and Pichincha (186). Records were mainly obtained from the REMFA citizen science project (698 records), iNaturalist (556 records), and from 7 scientific studies that reported 154 roadkill records collected sporadically, not in a systematic survey. Our initiative REMFA offers different ways to report roadkill and we found difference in frequency of use, with most data reported via Whatsapp (457 records), followed by the Epicollect App (165 records), Social networks (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; 73 records), and Email (3 records).
Among all non-systematic records, mammals were the most registered group (646 records, 63 species), followed by birds (485 records, 127 species), reptiles (391 records, 86 species) and amphibians (178 records, 22 species). Two marsupial mammals (D. marsupialis and D. pernigra ) and the yellow warbler (S. petechia ) were the most frequently reported species (250, 104, and 81 respectively. Table 4). Several species were reported from multiple locations and provinces, withD. marsupialis roadkill reports from 16 provinces, D. pernigra from eleven, Tamandua mexicana and Conepatus semistriatus from nine, and Coragyps atratus from eight provinces.
As with the systematic data, most records represented species classified as Least Concern by the IUCN Red List (IUCN, 2022) but there were twelve species of conservation concern, four currently listed as Data Deficient, and one not yet assessed by the IUCN (Table 5).