Mortality of vertebrates on the road

More than 20,000 vertebrates die every year on the Menorcan roads.

The GOB has presented a study "Seguiment de la mortalitat de vertebrats en carretera", elaborated during 2000 by a group of volunteers of the ecological organisation. The details obtained prove that on the Menorcan roads a great number of animal species are run over.

The study consisted in a control of the dead animals in two representative stretches of the island roads: Maó-Ciutadella and Maó-Fornells, carrying out 11 cencus throughout the four seasons of the year.

The GOB think that death by cars on the roads represents one of the main threats to our fauna, and that the roads are responsible for the fragmentation of the habitat of many species, contributing to their long term disappearance. For this reason the ecological organisation requests "that measures should be applied to avoid this mortality in the new roads or in the repairs of existing ones, such as including environmental impact studies that clearly define the situation of passages for fauna or other preventative elements."

More information:
- Memòria del projecte "Seguiment de la mortalitat de vertebrats en carretera" (GOB)

Photograph ceded by GOB Menorca

Datum: 20/11/2001

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