NEWS
New project aims to give
wildlife a brake
How the Brake4Wildlife project is looking for ways to reduce roadkill
in protected areas in South Africa
Wendy Collinson
Reprinted From: http://bit.ly/2S0KWBQ
T
he Endangered Wildlife Trust’s
(EWT) Wildlife and Roads Project
has embarked on a new five-year
project called Brake4Wildlife to find
ways to reduce roadkill in six protected
areas of South Africa, including the Kru-
ger National Park. The project is sup-
ported by the De Beers Group.
The primary goal is to reduce the rates
of roadkill in the protected areas. The
objectives are to:
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•
•
•
Obtain preliminary roadkill rates in
the Kruger National Park, Pilanes-
berg National Park, Addo Elephant
National Park, Table Mountain Na-
tional Park, Dinokeng Game Re-
serve and Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park.
Raise public awareness of roadkill
as a threat to biodiversity in pro-
tected areas.
Identify roadkill hotspot areas in
each protected area.
Examine driver behaviour and how
this can be influenced to reduce the
likelihood of roadkill.
Roads, and their users, are the cause of
many negative impacts on wildlife, such
as landscape fragmentation and pollu-
tion, creating barriers for migration and
gene flow. A further impact is wildlife-
vehicle collisions, resulting in an animal
being injured or killed (roadkill).
South Africa has 23 national parks, pro-
tecting only 6.3 per cent of the country’s
area but generating significant revenue
through tourism. However, with large
numbers of visitors, wildlife-vehicle col-
lisions commonly occur. Tourism is ex-
pected to grow significantly in South
Africa by 2020, leading to more vehicles
in protected areas and the potential for
more wildlife-vehicle collisions.
The EWT’s Wildlife and Roads Project
has been gathering data about wildlife
road deaths on regional and national
roads since 2010.
Preliminary surveys were undertaken
in both the Pilanesberg National Park
Grassroots
Vol 18
No 4
Figure 1: Members of the team arrive at EWT’s Development Week in Johannes-
burg. Rear, from left: Brilliant Mashao, an MSc student at the University of Venda
and Innocent Buthelezi, an EWT fieldworker for the project and a BTech student
at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). Front, from left: Wendy Collinson from
the Wildlife and Roads Project and Siboniso Thela, a BTech student at TUT
and the Addo Elephant National Park
in 2014 and 2015, where some 450 ve-
hicles were monitored. It was found that
nearly 70 per cent of drivers aren’t look-
ing at the roads but rather scanning the
bush for wildlife, and that many roadkills
in national parks happen as a result of
drivers expecting animals to be found
in the vegetation alongside the road,
rather than on the road itself.
ence and Technology Forum (NSTF) an-
nually celebrates the most outstanding
contributions to science, engineering,
technology and innovation. De Beers
Group is one of the core supporters of
the Wildlife and Roads Project.
Wendy’s a winning researcher
Wendy Collinson picked up the pres-
tigious TW Kambule-NSTF Award for
her work in establishing and running
the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Wildlife
and Roads Project (see above) which
aims to reduce the negative impacts
of transport infrastructure on wildlife,
and ultimately improve driver safety
through a reduction in wildlife-vehicle-
collisions. The award was presented by
the Minister of Science and Technology,
Ms Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, who
is the event’s patron. The National Sci-
December 2018
Figure 2: Wendy Collinson (left)
receives her award from Ms Kubayi-
Ngubane
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