Table 8. List of explanatory variables, their definition, and values.

Variable	Definition	Values
road	Identification of the road where road-kill was registered	1: M529/M370; 2: N4; 3: N114
traffica	Class of road traffic volume	1: <1 000 vehicles/day (M370); 2: 1 000 4 000 vehicles/day (M529); 3: 4 000–10 000 vehicles/day (N4A, N4B, N114A); 4: >10 000 vehicles/day (N114B)
rposition	Position of the carcass on the road	1: lane; 2: center; 3: paved shoulder; 4: unpaved shoulder
bcondition	Integrity status of the carcass	1: full carcass; 2: remains
Bmassb , c	Mean body mass of species (or taxonomic group) according to bibliographic references (see text)	3.3–7300 g (1: <20 g; 2: 20–100 g; 3: 100–1000 g; 4: >1000 g)
blength	Mean body length of species (or taxonomic group) according to bibliographic references (see text)	3.7–151.7 cm
season	Period of the year in which the carcass was initially found	1: Nov–Apr (wet season); 2: May–Oct (dry season)
raindaysd	Proportion of days with rainfall during the time the animal remained on the road (number of days with rain/number of days the animal remained on the road)	0–1
rainamounte	Rainfall abundance during the time the animal remained on the road (total amount of rainfall/number of days the animal remained on the road)	0–41.9 mm/day
meantemp	Daily mean temperature during the time the animal remained on the road	2.2–30.2°C
maxtemp	Daily maximum temperature during the time the animal remained on the road	7.1–40.8°C
mintemp	Daily minimum temperature during the time the animal remained on the road	−3.6–21°C

^avalues of traffic intensity for each road segment after E.P.E. (2005) and our own data (António Mira, unpublished data).

^blogarithmic transformation for small birds, small mammals and birds of prey;

^cbody mass was considered continuous for taxonomic groups data, and categorical for the “all taxa” data set;

^darcsine transformation for all taxonomic groups;

^elogarithmic transformation for all taxonomic groups.