Environmental Management https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-020-01263-y Are Roadkill Hotspots in the Cerrado Equal Among Groups of Vertebrates? Jefferson Eduardo Silveira Miranda 1,2 ● Fabiano Rodrigues de Melo 1,3,4,5 ● Ricardo Keichi Umetsu 1 Received: 13 February 2019 / Accepted: 1 February 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract Understand the spatial distribution of wildlife roadkill is necessary to design mitigation measures minimizing damage to the fauna and the human population. Thus, we aimed to analyze the spatial distribution of wildlife roadkill in the Brazilian savanna (“Cerrado”) to test whether roadkill hotspots match between the studied animal groups. We collected data of wildlife roadkill over a year in the southwest region of the state of Goiás, Brazil. To understand the distribution of roadkill on highways and to identify the aggregation hotspots, we used the modified two-dimensional Ripley K test and the two- dimensional hotspot identification analysis. We detected that birds and mammals have different aggregation points. These points may vary when the two groups are analyzed together or when species with greater abundance are removed from the analyses. Hence, we concluded that using generalist approaches including several species, are not enough, and can lead to erroneous conclusions. Therefore, it is necessary that the analyses be done in groups. Keywords Road ecology ● Biodiversity ● Local extinction ● Savanna ● Landscape Introduction The construction of highways modifies the ecosystem (Coffin 2007), fragments the landscape (Antrop 2000), and affects fauna in different ways (Forman and Alexander 1998). On highways changing the quality and quantity of viable habitat (Glista et al. 2009), wildlife roadkill is the most direct and obvious effect on wildlife (Forman and Alexander 1998; Coffin 2007). As there is a great diversity of species affected by col- lision, it is necessary to design mitigation proposals (Teix- eira et al. 2013). Accordingly, obtaining data based on roadkill rates may be the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way (Bager and Fontoura 2012) to further improve the effec- tiveness of mitigation measures, if accompanied by local assessments (Coelho et al. 2008). In addition, it is worth mentioning that studies of this nature may be useful not only for the identification of new records in localities of a specific region but may also improve the existing knowl- edge of potential roadkill species that are not recorded in the literature (Fischer et al. 2014). It is well known that roadkill follows temporal and spatial patterns (Garrah et al. 2015; Kreling et al. 2019). These factors may be related to the environmental characteristics (Clevenger et al. 2003; Garrah et al. 2015) or physical characteristics of the road and surrounding areas (Clevenger et al. 2003; Valero et al. 2015). Therefore, identifying factors related to spatial patterns is useful for road and environ- mental managers (Grilo et al. 2009; Girardet et al. 2015). Consequently, we need to know runway hotspots (or roadkill aggregation points) to decide which mitigation measures are needed (Bager et al. 2007; Ha and Shilling 2018). It will then be possible to inform drivers of potential wildlife crossings and avoid roadkill (Glista et al. 2009), as well as ensure a lower risk to life. * Jefferson Eduardo Silveira Miranda jefferson.jesm@gmail.com 1 Postgraduate Program in Ecology and Conservation, State University of Mato Grosso, Nova Xavantina, Mato Grosso, Brazil 2 Faculdade de Iporá, FAI, Iporá, Goiás, Brazil 3 Associate Professor III, Department of Forest Engineering, Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil 4 Muriqui Institute for Biodiversity, Caratinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil 5 Brazilian Coordinator of the Primate Specialist Group, Species Survival Commission, Internation Union for Conservation of Nature (PSG/SSC/IUCN), Austin, USA Supplementary information The online version of this article (https:// doi.org/10.1007/s00267-020-01263-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. 1234567890();,: 1234567890();,: