The Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute has innovated road crossings that have reduced land crab road deaths on Green Island (綠島) by more than 50 percent, it said yesterday.
Land crabs breed during summer, which is when most tourists visit the island in Taitung County. As a result, many female land crabs migrating toward the sea to release their larvae get hit by vehicles during the peak season.
The Taitung County Government and local authorities have installed at least 19 road crossings for land crabs on the island, including underground culverts, drainage channels and bridges, the institute said.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute
Commissioned by the Tourism Administration’s East Coast National Scenic Area Headquarters, the institute researched the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes in guiding land crabs — mainly the red apple crab and the terrestrial hermit crab — to two culverts along the circumferential road near Shilang (石朗), with the goal of decreasing the roadkill rate of land crabs, it said.
The two culverts connecting the island’s hills to coasts were divided into control and experimental groups, the institute said.
The control culvert was left without extra guiding designs.
The experimental culvert had underground PVC pipes with a 10cm diameter linking the seaside exit to the coast, as well as longitudinally halved 10cm diameter PVC pipes installed along the retaining wall to guide crabs to the hillside entrance of the culvert, the institute said.
The research team conducted 29 and 25 surveys from May to August in 2022 and 2023 respectively, and observed the migration of a total of 1,833 land crabs, it said.
Results showed that guiding facilities significantly increased both species’ use of crossing culverts, the institute said.
The experimental group saw a more than 50 percent reduction in roadkill rates compared with the control group, it said.
Future designs would be focused on enlarging PVC pipes’ diameter for ventilation, enhancing the connection between pipes and culverts, and the clearing of obstacles in those channels, the institute said.
More guiding facilities for culverts’ seaside exits would also be developed to assist land crabs in returning to their habitats on the hillside, it added.
The institute would continue to collaborate with local authorities in applying the technique to more roadkill hotspots on the island to ensure land crabs’ safety, the institute said.
The study is to be published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation next month, it added.
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