Using animal–vehicle collision data for wildlife population monitoring

Jonathan Lind Hansen; Peter Sunde; Thorsten Johannes Skovbjerg Balsby; Martin Mayer

doi:10.1002/ecs2.4953

Using animal–vehicle collision data for wildlife population monitoring

Jonathan Lind Hansen, Peter Sunde, Thorsten Johannes Skovbjerg Balsby, Martin Mayer^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Article number	e4953
Journal	Ecosphere
Volume	15
Issue	9
ISSN	2150-8925
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4953
Publication status	Published - Sept 2024

Keywords

deer–vehicle collisions
Denmark
fallow deer
red deer
roadkill
roe deer
spatial ecology

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10.1002/ecs2.4953

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title = "Using animal–vehicle collision data for wildlife population monitoring",

abstract = "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.",

keywords = "deer–vehicle collisions, Denmark, fallow deer, red deer, roadkill, roe deer, spatial ecology",

author = "{Lind Hansen}, Jonathan and Peter Sunde and {Skovbjerg Balsby}, {Thorsten Johannes} and Martin Mayer",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2024 The Author(s). Ecosphere published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America.",

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N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - deer–vehicle collisions

KW - Denmark

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KW - spatial ecology

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ER -

Using animal–vehicle collision data for wildlife population monitoring

Abstract

Keywords

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