The effect of traffic intensity and animal activity on probability of ungulate-vehicle collisions in the Czech Republic

Kušta, Tomáš; Keken, Zdeněk; Ježek, Miloš; Holá, Michaela; Šmı́d, Petr

doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2016.08.002

Cited by 52 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…They can thus be detained in a certain place, which will prevent their migration in search of food across railway tracks. The results of the study Kušta et al (2017) show that when animals have suitable resting, cover and feeding conditions, they limit their physical activity to a minimum.…”

Section: Management Measuresmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Interestingly, railway accidents most often occur in winter, while accidents on roads occur less frequently in winter (Hothorn et al 2012;Kušta et al 2014a;Kušta et al 2017;Pokorný 2006). Therefore railway transport can influence animal behaviour in a different way than road transport.…”

Section: Railway Ecology Experience In the Czech Republicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to the information from employees of Czech Railways, the most frequent collisions with animals occur in open flat sections of the track, especially at dawn, dusk or at night. This is probably caused by grazing ungulates in these locations and their greater physical activity at dusk and dawn (Kušta et al 2017), which can correlate with temporal patterns of wildlife-vehicle collision (WVC) on roads (Kušta et al 2017). …”

Section: Railway Ecology Experience In the Czech Republicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Knowledge of this feeding can be used to reduce migration and therefore even collisions (Kušta et al 2017). It is important to place feeding devices near animal resting areas so that they do not have to migrate in search of food in winter, or even have to search for it intensively.…”

Section: Management Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the major problems of nature and landscape protection at the turn of the 21st century is the fragmentation of natural habitats by settlements and transport infrastructure (Kušta et al 2017). Railway transport is involved in this phenomenon as well (Anděl et al 2010a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Railway Ecology—Experiences and Examples in the Czech Republic

Keken

Kušta

2017

Railway Ecology

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The range of direct and indirect effects of railway transport on animals, plants, ecological processes and the actual ecosystems vary considerably. Railway transport operations and infrastructure building lead to environmental pollution, loss or conversion of habitats, landscape fragmentation and, last but not least, to animal mortality caused by collisions with passing trains. The impact of railways is determined by the nature of railway infrastructure, which is not as significant in the Czech Republic as road infrastructure, yet it is one of the densest in Europe. An important feature is relatively low electrification (about 33% of the lines) and the length of multi-track lines (about 20%). In the coming years, we can expect massive investments in revitalization, optimization and modernization of the railways in the Czech Republic, and eventually their electrification. To connect the crucial trans-European lines and all regions it will be necessary to complete the basic network of high-speed railways. Based on these facts we can say that the significance of railway ecology in the Czech Republic will grow with the amount of investment activities implemented in the railway network. In the past, similar development took place with road infrastructure, and therefore there is an opportunity to learn from it. To mitigate the direct effects of railways on wildlife, on the basis of previous experience in the Czech Republic we recommend working primarily with management measures. These are both in terms of wildlife management and the management of habitats in the area of transport infrastructure.

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Section: Management Measuresmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Railway Ecology Experience In the Czech Republicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Railway Ecology Experience In the Czech Republicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Management Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Railway Ecology—Experiences and Examples in the Czech Republic

Keken

Kušta

2017

Railway Ecology

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Invasive wild deer exhibit environmental niche shifts in Australia: Where to from here?

Kelly

Gordon

Schwarzkopf

et al. 2023

Ecology and Evolution

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Using animal–vehicle collision data for wildlife population monitoring

Lind Hansen,

Sunde,

Skovbjerg Balsby

et al. 2024

Ecosphere

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Globally, collisions with vehicles result in millions of animal deaths every year, representing a major issue for wildlife conservation and management. Consequently, and importantly, much research has focused on understanding patterns of animal–vehicle collisions with the aim to reduce roadkill of wildlife. However, existing data on animal–vehicle collisions might also represent a novel opportunity to monitor wildlife populations. For this purpose, we compared data of >1.2 million hunter‐shot deer and >40,000 deer–vehicle collisions collected over 11 years in Denmark. We show that deer–vehicle collision data can be useful for population monitoring of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), fallow deer (Dama dama), and red deer (Cervus elaphus). Roe deer was the most numerous species, representing 90% of observations based both on deer–vehicle collisions and on hunting bag statistics. After accounting for factors related to road infrastructure (road length and density, traffic volume), local (municipality) deer–vehicle collisions were highly correlated with hunting bag data for roe and red deer (Pearson's r > 0.7) but not fallow deer, likely due to biases in hunting bags. Moreover, we used deer–vehicle collision data to map spatiotemporal changes in the distribution of fallow and red deer, and demographic changes in all species. Combined, our results suggest that animal–vehicle collision data can be a useful tool to supplement existing methods for monitoring wildlife populations, which will be relevant for the management of these populations. We point to important shortcomings in both animal–vehicle collision and hunting bag data and provide recommendations on how to improve their accuracy in the future, to be applicable for a broader range of species.

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The effect of traffic intensity and animal activity on probability of ungulate-vehicle collisions in the Czech Republic

Cited by 52 publications

References 68 publications

Railway Ecology—Experiences and Examples in the Czech Republic

Railway Ecology—Experiences and Examples in the Czech Republic

Invasive wild deer exhibit environmental niche shifts in Australia: Where to from here?

Using animal–vehicle collision data for wildlife population monitoring

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