Therefore, conservation of apex predators and their habitats is exceptionally important to ensure the preservation and functionality of entire ecosystems over time 8. The maintenance of ecosystem functioning provided by apex predators is linked to a variety of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, water provision, and food security 9, 10. They are simultaneously vital to the structure, functioning, and resilience of ecosystems globally 8, 9, due to their direct and indirect influence on the interactions of lower trophic levels, by displacing mesopredators and regulating large herbivore populations 8. Apex predators are defined here as non-herbivorous terrestrial mammals having an average body mass higher than 13 kg 7, or species that are below that threshold but are main predators in their ecosystems (see Supplementary Table S1). Roads affect almost all species groups 4, but apex predators are acutely threatened by road development, due to their large spatial ranges, low population densities, low reproductive rates, and intolerance to increased human disturbance for most species 6. Some of the impacts of roaded landscapes for wildlife are direct mortality from wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC), land clearing driving habitat loss and fragmentation, reduced habitat quality adjacent to roads, increased access for poaching, and barriers to wildlife movement causing population fragmentation and loss of genetic connectivity 4, 5. They commonly drive loss of ecological health and integrity 3, 4 providing human access to otherwise undisturbed areas and affecting ecosystems and wildlife 3. Roads are the most widespread form of landscape modification, developed in pursuit of natural resource exploitation, agricultural, and economic development 1, 2, 2.

We advocate the need for rigorous road development planning to apply effective mitigation measures as an urgent priority and to avoid construction in wilderness areas and predator strongholds. Roughly 500 protected areas will be intersected by these roads, threatening core apex predator habitats. We applied this method to proposed road developments in three areas: the Brazilian Amazon, Africa, and Nepal, to locate high-impact road segments. Based on species risk from roads, we propose a widely applicable method to assess the potential impact of future roads on apex predators. The sloth bear suffers the highest risk of all apex predators, followed by the tiger and dhole. Eight of the ten species with the highest risk occur in Asia, although other high-risk species are present in the Americas, Africa and Europe. Our findings reveal all apex predators are exposed to road impacts. We reviewed road impacts on 36 apex predator species and assessed their risk from current roads based on road exposure and species vulnerability. This occurs through wildlife-vehicle collisions, habitat loss and fragmentation, reduced genetic connectivity and increased poaching. It does not store any personal data.The global expansion of road networks threatens apex predator conservation and ecosystem functioning. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Performance'.

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Apex predators 2021