Finding achievable ways to reduce roads’ impacts on wildlife is a conservation priority. Road verges may be important refuges for small fauna, making them good hunting sites for predators. These make both prey and predators vulnerable to vehicle collisions. Thus, actions aiming to dissuade these animals from approaching roads are needed. Here we tested the effectiveness of ultrasonic devices to keep rodents away from the road verges. We hypothesised that exposing rodents to ultrasounds will cause them to stay away from the device and, consequently, from the road. We sampled rodents before and after the devices were switched on. Our results showed a reduction in animal activity after 10 days with the devices on. The next step is to analyse if this behaviour translates in a reduction of wildlife-vehicle collisions of rodents and their predators.

中文翻译：

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超声波设备在防止啮齿动物上路的有效性

寻找减轻道路对野生生物影响的可行方法是保护工作的重点。道路坡道可能是小型动物区系的重要避难所，使其成为捕食者的理想狩猎地点。这些使猎物和掠食者都容易受到车辆碰撞的伤害。因此，需要采取措施阻止这些动物靠近道路。在这里，我们测试了超声波设备使啮齿动物远离道路边缘的有效性。我们假设将啮齿动物暴露于超声波下会导致它们远离设备，因此远离道路。在打开设备之前和之后，我们对啮齿动物进行了采样。我们的结果表明，在使用该设备的10天后，动物活动减少了。下一步是分析这种行为是否减少了啮齿动物及其捕食者与野生动植物的碰撞。