The impact of roads on the movement of arboreal fauna in protected areas: the case of lar and pileated gibbons in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand
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Cambridge University Press
Materia
Arboreal taxa Gibbons Home range Movement barriers Protected areas Road crossing
Date
2021-09-09Referencia bibliográfica
Asensio N... [et al.] (2021) The impact of roads on the movement of arboreal fauna in protected areas: the case of lar and pileated gibbons in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. Journal of Tropical Ecology 37, 276–285. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266467421000390]
Abstract
The unavoidable impact of roads on arboreal fauna in protected areas has received little
attention. We investigated this impact on two gibbon species in Khao Yai National Park,
Thailand: two groups had home ranges traversed by roads (roadside groups) and another
two lived nearby roads (interior groups). Roads partially delineated the edges of home ranges
of roadside groups, and gibbons crossed them only at a few locations. Gibbons’ space use
decreased near roads for roadside groups and showed road reluctance as their crossing rates
were smaller than those produced by a null movement model. Generalised linear models
(GLMs) indicated that a long canopy gap reduced gibbons’ crossing probability, whereas forest
cover had a positive effect. A large part of the road network had a low probability of being
crossed by gibbons according to GLMs, especially at areas around park headquarters. Roads
were still relatively permeable to gibbon movement with a mean 35% crossing probability. The relatively
short and narrow road network in the park constitutes a positive assessment of the standards
of how roads should be built in protected areas. Nonetheless, this assessment might be the consequence
of the park being set in a mountainous region with difficulties of road development.