Silva, Lucas Gonçalves; Cherem, Jorge José; Kasper, Carlos Benhur; Trigo, Tatiane Campos; Eizirik, E. (2014). Mapping wild cat roadkills in southern Brazil: baseline data for species conservation. Cat News, 61, 34–37.
Although roads are often important sources of impact on wildlife, adequate surveys of this threat are still lacking for many regions. In southern Brazil, the dense road network and intense cargo flow are potential threats to many mammals, including felids. This region contains two major biomes (Atlantic Forest and Pampas) and is a hotspot for felids, with eight different species (jaguar Panthera onca, puma Puma concolor, jaguarundi P. yagouaroundi, pampas cat Leopardus colocolo, oceolot L. pardalis, Geoffroy’s cat L. geoffroyi, southern tiger cat L. guttulus and margay L. wie- dii). To investigate the spatial occurrence of roadkilled felids in this region, we as- sembled a database containing 178 recent records from all eight species. Spatial patterns varied among species, in some cases corroborating known differences in habitat association, while others provided novel insights on their distribution. Moreover, the results illustrate the magnitude of felid roadkills in this region, and highlight the need for further research as well as conservation actions addressing this problem.