Title:

Factors Affecting Road Mortality of the Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica in Farmland

Subtitle:

Czynniki wpływające na śmiertelność dymówki na drogach w krajobrazie rolniczym ; Road mortality of the Barn Swallows

Creator:

Orłowski, Grzegorz

Contributor:

Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences

Publisher:

Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences

Place of publishing:

Warsaw

Date issued/created:

2005

Description:

pg(s) 117–125

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Subject and Keywords:

Barn Swallow ; Hirundo rustica ; road kills ; environmental factors ; bird protection ; landscape planning ; dymówka ; jaskółka dymówka

Abstract:

Ninety-nine road-killed Barn Swallows were found during three years of studies on a 48.8 km road network in an intensively farmed landscape in SW Poland. Nearly 88% of all road-kills were recorded in built-up areas and on road sections in their vicinity. The average number of road-kills per 1 km of roads was over twenty times higher in built-up areas than in open agricultural landscape (6.74 vs 0.33 road-kills/1 km). This paper investigates the influence of environmental factors (lines of trees along roads, number of livestock, volume of traffic, number of inhabitants) on the level of Barn Swallow mortality on the roads in question. During the breeding season the number of birds killed in built-up areas was related positively to the number of cattle reared, the overall number of livestock (including pigs) and the number of inhabitants. In the multiple regression model following stepwise forward selection, the number of cattle explained 41 % of the variance in the size of the whole-year road mortality of swallows in the built-up area. During the autumn migration period the length of tree-lined road sections in the built-up area had an significant influence on road-kill frequency, explaining 36% of the variance in mortality. Mortality was high on tree-lined sections of road in adverse weather conditions.

Relation:

Acta Ornithologica

Volume:

40

Issue:

2

Start page:

117

End page:

125

Resource type:

Text

Detailed Resource Type:

Journal

Format:

text/xml

Resource Identifier:

10.3161/068.040.0207

Source:

MiIZ PAN, call no. P.257 ; MiIZ PAN, call no. P.4568 ; click here to follow the link

Language:

eng

Language of abstract:

pol ; eng

Rights:

Rights Reserved - Free Access

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. May be used within the limits of statutory user freedoms

Digitizing institution:

Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Original in:

Library of the Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Access:

Open