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A Method to Assess the Extent of Road Avoidance by Wildlife on Road Verges in Deciduous Woodland Habitat, in the U.K.

The intensity and growth of the road network in the United Kingdom (UK) during the last 20 years has reduced much of the British landscape to small fragments of often sub-optimal wildlife habitat. Whilst some autecological studies have been undertaken in Britain, there has been comparatively little research on the effects of roads on the assemblage of different mammal species commonly found on roadsides. This paper describes the pilot study using sandbeds to provide a holistic approach to elucidate the ecology of roads and wildlife. Sandbeds provide a method to assess the permeability of roads for an array of British mammals and can also be used to assess the effectiveness of measures designed to mitigate the effects of fragmentation arising from linear transport infrastructures. Study methods which use traps and which are routinely used for single species investigations are unsuitable when dealing with species which range in size from 48mm (shrews) to 1000mm (fallow deer). Footprints and tracks left in sand beds however, enable all mammals to be studied, whatever their size. The data collected provide a relatively easy and inexpensive means of assessing the extent to which various species are affected by different classes of roads and different traffic densities.