Wildlife Crossings along the Ring Changbai Mountain Scenic Highway, China
China State Forestry Administration is in the process of restoring Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) habitat in the Changbai Mountain National Nature Reserve. The 84 km long Changbai Mountain scenic Ring highway encircles and bisects the nature reserve. Although, traffic flow is under 100 vehicles per day in winter, the highway is being upgraded to a paved surface. With the expected increasing traffic flow, increased wildlife vehicle collisions and barrier effects are likely. In order to identify wildlife crossing zones and future protective measurement, the authors carried out 10 wildlife highway crossing surveys during the winter in 2008-2009. Each survey took place two or three days after the last snow event. They drove along the highway at a low speed (about 20-30 km/h) and stopped to identify wildlife tracks crossing the highway. They concluded wildlife crossed based on seeing wildlife’s tracks on both sides of the highway. For each 5km section, they recorded highway crossings of all small-mid sized and large mammals and one large protected bird species, the hazel grouse (Bonasa bonasia) and noted snow depth and the dominant vegetation type. The authors detected 12 mammal species and 1 avifauna species crossing the highway 502 times. The smallest of mammal was the Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris). The most common species which crossed was the Siberian weasel (Mustela sibirica) (169) and Manchurian hare (Lepus mandschuricus) (100). Large mammals detected included the wild boar (Sus scrofe) (64) and brown bear (Ursus arctos) (1). The average number of wildlife crossings per five km was 29.5. The authors found species richness and crossing frequency was higher in sections with broad leaf forest compared to sections with white birch secondary forest significantly. Snow depth was negatively related to species richness and crossing frequency, but was not significant. They concluded that wildlife crossing opportunities would serve most wildlife and likely tiger in sections with natural broad leaf forest. They recommended disturbance of broad leaf forest be minimized during construction and strict protection be established for broad leaf forests around Changbai Mountain National Nature Reserve.
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- Summary URL:
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Supplemental Notes:
- Abstract used with permission from the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation, organized by the Center for Transportation and the Environment, Institute for Transportation Research and Education, North Carolina State University.
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Corporate Authors:
North Carolina State University, Raleigh
Center for Transportation and the Environment
Raleigh, NC United States 27695-8601 -
Authors:
- Wang, Yun
- Piao, Zhengji
- Guan, Lei
- Li, Haifeng
- Li, Qilin
- Lu, Yayi
- Fan, Da
- Chen, Jiding
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Conference:
- 2011 International Conference on Ecology and Transportation (ICOET 2011)
- Location: Seattle Washington, United States
- Date: 2011-8-21 to 2011-8-25
- Publication Date: 2012
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
- Pagination: pp 95-103
- Monograph Title: Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Ecology and Transportation (ICOET 2011)
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Animals; Conservation; Crashes; Environmental protection; Mountain roads; Scenic highways; Wildlife crossings
- Geographic Terms: China
- Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01558466
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Mar 31 2015 8:53AM