Roadkill distribution at the wildland‐urban interface

Kreling, Samantha E.S.; Gaynor, Kaitlyn M.; Coon, Courtney A. C.

doi:10.1002/jwmg.21692

Cited by 42 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Animal-vehicle collisions (AVC) are an important data source on animal movement and activity and are also pertinent to species conservation, human-wildlife conflict and human safety 17 , 18 . There have been a growing number of AVC cases worldwide due to expanded road networks and growing traffic volumes 19 , which are more intensified in urban environments 20 , 21 . Annually, an estimated 194 million birds and 29 million mammals are killed annually on European roads alone 22 with ungulates alone exceeding 1 million per year 23 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal-vehicle collisions during the COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020 in the Krakow metropolitan region, Poland

Basak

O’Mahony

Lesiak

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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The interrelations between human activity and animal populations are of increasing interest due to the emergence of the novel COVID-19 and the consequent pandemic across the world. Anthropogenic impacts of the pandemic on animals in urban-suburban environments are largely unknown. In this study, the temporal and spatial patterns of urban animal response to the COVID-19 lockdown were assessed using animal-vehicle collisions (AVC) data. We collected AVC data over two 6-month periods in 2019 and 2020 (January to June) from the largest metropolis in southern Poland, which included lockdown months. Furthermore, we used traffic data to understand the impact of lockdown on AVC in the urban area. Our analysis of 1063 AVC incidents revealed that COVID-19 related lockdown decreased AVC rates in suburban areas. However, in the urban area, even though traffic volume had significantly reduced, AVC did not decrease significantly, suggesting that lockdown did not influence the collision rates in the urban area. Our results suggest that there is a need to focus on understanding the effects of changes in traffic volume on both human behaviour and wildlife space use on the resulting impacts on AVC in the urban area.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal-vehicle collisions during the COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020 in the Krakow metropolitan region, Poland

Basak

O’Mahony

Lesiak

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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“…households, shops) may reflect an increase in human activity. Success in solving novel problems (using new resources) that are available within squirrels' habitat may increase as a result of minimizing exposures to humans (especially for species that may not be entirely habituated to humans, as in the case for this squirrel species), avoiding other risks such as road death [36] or human and vehicle traffic around the area [37]. Alternatively, an increased number of buildings may also decrease success as the necessity to solve novel problems decreases if buildings provide alternative, easily accessible food sources (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of urban environments and novel problem-solving performance in Eurasian red squirrels

et al. 2021

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Urban environments can be deemed ‘harsh’ for some wildlife species, but individuals frequently show behavioural flexibility to cope with challenges and demands posed by life in the city. For example, urban animals often show better performance in solving novel problems than rural conspecifics, which helps when using novel resources under human-modified environments. However, which characteristics of urban environments fine-tune novel problem-solving performance, and their relative importance, remain unclear. Here, we examined how four urban environmental characteristics (direct human disturbance, indirect human disturbance, size of green coverage and squirrel population size) may potentially influence novel problem-solving performance of a successful ‘urban dweller’, the Eurasian red squirrel, by presenting them with a novel food-extraction problem. We found that increased direct human disturbance, indirect human disturbance and a higher squirrel population size decreased the proportion of solving success at the population level. At the individual level, an increase in squirrel population size decreased the latency to successfully solve the novel problem the first time. More importantly, increased direct human disturbance, squirrel population size and experience with the novel problem decreased problem-solving time over time. These findings highlight that some urban environmental characteristics shape two phenotypic extremes in the behaviour-flexibility spectrum: individuals either demonstrated enhanced learning or they failed to solve the novel problem.

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“…We propose that, depending on the nature of the roadkill distribution and the resulting so called hotspots, roadkill monitoring effort should embrace systematic (continued in a routine way) and random (registering routes selected to cover long distances with a diversity of natural factors and habitats) aspects. With the fixed long routes, also including the vicinities of cities, the method will cover different risks of medium-sized species being roadkilled on the roads with varying traffic intensities [ 20 , 54 , 55 ]. The proposed routes for raccoon dog monitoring cover both various habitats and the full range of traffic intensities, these shown as being the two main factors, other than population size, responsible for roadkill volume [ 43 ].…”

Section: Conclusion and Practical Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roadkills as a Method to Monitor Raccoon Dog Populations

Balčiauskas

Stratford

Balčiauskienė

et al. 2021

Animals

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The raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) is one of the most frequently killed species on Lithuanian roads. As an invasive species, up-to-date knowledge of population size, trends and spatial distribution is critically important both for species assessment and for the planning of control measures. In Lithuania, however, raccoon dog surveys have not been carried out since 1997. We investigated, therefore, whether roadkill counts on predefined routes could be used as a proxy for a survey. Our dataset includes survey numbers for the period 1956–1997, hunting bag sizes for 1965–2020 (including the spatial distribution of the hunting bag in 2018–2020) and roadkill data relating to 1551 individuals between 2002–2020. At the most local scale, that of the hunting areas of hunting clubs, correlations between the numbers of hunted and roadkilled individuals were negative and insignificant or absent. At the country scale, however, we found significant correlation both between the numbers surveyed and hunted in 1965–1997 (r = 0.88), and between those hunted and the number of roadkills in 2002–2020 (r = 0.56–0.69). Therefore, we consider that roadkill counts on predefined and stable routes may be used as a proxy for a survey at the country scale. Practical implementation of the method is proposed.

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Roadkill distribution at the wildland‐urban interface

Cited by 42 publications

References 51 publications

Animal-vehicle collisions during the COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020 in the Krakow metropolitan region, Poland

Animal-vehicle collisions during the COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020 in the Krakow metropolitan region, Poland

Characteristics of urban environments and novel problem-solving performance in Eurasian red squirrels

Roadkills as a Method to Monitor Raccoon Dog Populations

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