Bat Overpasses Help Bats to Cross Roads Safely by Increasing Their Flight Height

• DOI: 10.3161/15081109acc2021.23.1.015
• Publication Date: 2021-07-09T08:40:25Z
• Authors: Fabien Claireau; Christian Kerbiriou; Flavien Charton; Cédric De Almeida...; Thibaut Ferraille; Jean-François Julien; Nathalie Machon; Benjamin Allegrini; Sebastien J. Puec...; Yves Bas
• Keywords: 0106 biological sciences; 570; crossing structure; bats; 500; bat; Biodiversity; 15. Life on land; 01 natural sciences; road kills; Chiroptera; [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology; Mammalia; Animalia; flight paths; mitigation measure; before-after analysis; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Chordata; bat gantry; collision

Roads have a multitude of negative effects on wildlife, including bat casualties. Most species rely life history traits characterised by high adult survival (associated with greater longevity) and low reproduction rates (hence slow population growth rates). Therefore, road kills are expected to negatively affect local abundance dynamics. Bat overpasses among the proposed improvements intended increase flight height reduce collisions, but their effectiveness has rarely been tested. In this study, we performed before-after analysis assess one overpass height. We used novel approach, tracking toolbox (BTT), reconstruct paths from thermal videos. obtained 268 our results showed that bats increased significantly after installation overpass. Considering can help in some situations habitat connectivity collision risk, mitigation measure needs be further investigated different contexts construction and/or requalification.