| Highways can fragment habitat and be a significant mortality source for mammals. Wildlife exclusion fencing has been shown to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions, but can also prevent animals from escaping from the corridor if they enter at access roads or at fence ends. Earthen escape ramps, or "jumpouts" have been proposed as a possible solution, but they remain relatively untested. We documented wildlife response at 4 jumpout ramps in a 2.5-mile wildlife exclusion fence project along Highway 101 near San Luis Obispo, California, from 2012-2017. Preliminary analysis of the jumpouts indicated that Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionis) used the jumpouts, but the data were confounded by pseudo replication. Additionally, there appeared to be variation between antlered and non-antlered deer, which warrants deeper investigation.
We also documented wildlife use of culverts. Mountain lions (Puma concolor) and bobcats (Lynx rufus) are our focal species for the culverts because our study site crosses a modeled mountain lion corridor in the Los Padres National Forest, and bobcats are an ecologically important mesocarnivore. We propose a multivariate analysis of the factors influencing carnivore use of culverts including culvert dimensionality, nearby habitat, and proximity to cover. The goal is to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions while facilitating regional connectivity.
This is a work in progress. |