Road kills of amphibian and reptile species in Edirne and Kırklareli Provinces of Turkey

Dunyada bircok yaban hayvani yol olumlerine maruz kalmaktadir. Omurgalilar arasinda yol olumleri ile ilgili olarak en fazla tehlike altinda olan hayvan gruplari yol kenarlarinda yasayan amfibi ve surungenlerdir. Ancak, amfibi ve surungenlerin Turkiye’deki yol olumleri ile ilgili az sayida calisma vardir. Kirklareli ilinde E87 karayolunda 18-22 Haziran 2016 tarihlerinde yol olumune maruz kalan 23 olu bireyi (2 ture ait 6 amfibi bireyi ve 9 ture ait 17 surungen bireyi) kayit altina alirken, Edirne ilindeki Enez-Ipsala karayolunda ise ayni yilin 22-25 Haziran gunlerinde 134 bireyi (3 amfibi turune ait 114 birey ve 8 surungen turune ait 20 birey) olu olarak bulduk. Edirne ilinde en fazla olu bireyi bulunan turler Pelophylax ridibundus ve Bufotes variabilis olurken, Kirklareli ilinde yol olumlerinden en fazla etkilenen turler Pelophylax ridibundus, Lacerta trilineata, Dolichophis caspius ve Testudo graeca’dir. Kisa sureli bir donemde gerceklestirilen bu calismanin sonuclari, yol olumlerine maruz kalan amfibi ve surungenlerin cok oldugunu gosterecek uzun donemli calismalarin yapilmasina ihtiyac oldugunu gostermektedir


Introduction
The amphibian and reptilian species which are distributed in many parts of the world are threatened by numerous factors such as habitat modification and fragmentation, diseases, pollution, predations, invasive species and climate change [1][2][3][4][5].Some of these threats originate from human activities, one of which is road kills [2].
Although roads have a crucial role in the modern economy and society, providing connectivity among human settlements and access to critical services, resources, and activities [6][7], it may cause a change in mortality-recruitment ratios of animal populations due to road kills [8].

Material and Method
The present study was carried out in more than thirty localities on two

Results
The starting period of the study coincides with the beginning of the 3month period (June-August) during which the average temperature increases (  1 and their status was reported according to IUCN criteria.Photos belonged to some of specimens, which exposed to car crashes, were given in Figures 2 and 3.

Discussion
Road mortality, which causes decline in the numbers of individual, has a serious negative impact on amphibian and reptile populations [40][41].Although there are many studies related to the road kills of amphibians and reptiles in the world [33,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] there is limited research on this issue in Turkey [28].
There were not high rates of traffic density on The E87 and Enez-Ipsala highways.However, we found a lot of amphibian and reptile individuals killed by the traffic on these roads.Similarly, Consistent with this finding, we observed that this species was the most affected snake species.In addition, we found three

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.The map showing the localities of the observed individuals exposed to road-kills in Kırklareli (A) and Edirne (B) provinces of Turkey.
dead individuals of Testudo graeca on the E87 highway.Testudo graeca has been classified in the VU (Vulnerable) category in the IUCN Red List and special precautions should be taken to protect the individuals of the species in this area.The present study was done in a month (June) of the summer season and the observation was performed in limited days (4 days in Edirne and 5 days in Kırklareli).Increasing the number of days to study will also lead to a further increase in the observed number of dead animals on the road.Future observations are necessary, especially in the spring months when amphibians and reptiles do more displacement to initiate post-hibernation activities for breeding.More accurate comments can be made by comparing the results of observations to be made in all seasons of the year (including also the autumn and the beginning of winter).