Advanced Ecology Symposium
Identifying Critical Features to Optimize Wildlife Corridor Design for North American Herpetofauna
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Graduate
Major
Biology
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Howard Whiteman, PhD
Presentation Format
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Description
Land-use change (e.g., urbanization) has been identified as the leading driver of global biodiversity loss. Landscape fragmentation from land-use change results in wildlife populations becoming restricted and isolated which has numerous negative effects on life history, such as foraging and reproduction. As fragmentation continues and resources become scarcer, the potential for negative human-wildlife interactions (e.g., car-deer strikes, crop damage) increases as well. Wildlife corridors are often constructed to mitigate these negative effects on wildlife and human activities. Based on the home range widths (HRW) of North American mammal species, a corridor width of two kilometers has been proposed as an optimal corridor design balancing the required HRWs of approximately 91% of mammal species and the economical and logistical feasibility of the wildlife corridor construction. There is minimal scientific literature on the appropriate corridor widths for other taxa. As a result, I conducted a literature review of home range estimations for many North American species in the orders Anura, Caudata, Squamata, and Testudines. Additionally, I calculated each species’ HRW with the intent of determining the required corridor width to accommodate 100%, 95%, 90%, 75%, 50%, 25%, and 5% of North American herpetofauna species. Further, literature review efforts yielded additional corridor design features that conservation scientists should consider for potential further optimization of wildlife corridors.
Fall Scholars Week 2023 Event
Advanced Ecology Symposium
Identifying Critical Features to Optimize Wildlife Corridor Design for North American Herpetofauna
Land-use change (e.g., urbanization) has been identified as the leading driver of global biodiversity loss. Landscape fragmentation from land-use change results in wildlife populations becoming restricted and isolated which has numerous negative effects on life history, such as foraging and reproduction. As fragmentation continues and resources become scarcer, the potential for negative human-wildlife interactions (e.g., car-deer strikes, crop damage) increases as well. Wildlife corridors are often constructed to mitigate these negative effects on wildlife and human activities. Based on the home range widths (HRW) of North American mammal species, a corridor width of two kilometers has been proposed as an optimal corridor design balancing the required HRWs of approximately 91% of mammal species and the economical and logistical feasibility of the wildlife corridor construction. There is minimal scientific literature on the appropriate corridor widths for other taxa. As a result, I conducted a literature review of home range estimations for many North American species in the orders Anura, Caudata, Squamata, and Testudines. Additionally, I calculated each species’ HRW with the intent of determining the required corridor width to accommodate 100%, 95%, 90%, 75%, 50%, 25%, and 5% of North American herpetofauna species. Further, literature review efforts yielded additional corridor design features that conservation scientists should consider for potential further optimization of wildlife corridors.