Comportamento de motoristas em relação à presença de serpentes em estradas de Tefé, Amazonas.

Abstract

Mortality due to wild animals being run over on roads represents one of the major factors in the loss of biodiversity in the world. In this sense, the group of reptiles are greatly affected due to their slow mobility and thermoregulation, especially snakes. Furthermore, snakes can be direct targets of intentional run-overs, which can negatively impact natural populations. In view of this, the present study aims to: 1- analyze the intentionality of snakes being run over on the Agrovila and EMADE roads, located in the municipality of Tefé, Amazonas. 2- Check the differences in collisions between snake models and control objects and 3- Categorize the vehicles involved in collisions. To this end, two snake models (coral and green pattern) and a control object (pet bottle) were used, which were sampled in three sections of the Agrovila road and two sections of the EMADE road, with one hour of observation for each. aforementioned item. The sampling effort was 30 hours (10 hours per item). Only in the urban-rural direction were recorded the number and category of vehicles that traveled during the observations. An intentional collision was considered to be the act of the driver deviating from his route to reach the models and control object. To check whether the items were run over by chance or deliberately, the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney non-parametric test was applied. 108 intentional run-overs were recorded for the green snake model, 64 for the coral snake model and 43 for the control object. Statistically, there were no differences in the frequencies of being run over between the snake models, nor between them and the control object, which indicates that there was an intentional run over for the snake models. Motorcycles and cars were the vehicles with the highest traffic flow, as well as those most involved in pedestrian accidents. Therefore, through these results, the present study confirms the intentional running over of snakes on the aforementioned roads. Therefore, there is a need to raise awareness, through environmental education, of drivers and community residents in communities close to the roads, in order to mitigate intentional accidents involving snakes.