Bíl, Michal and Andrášik, Richard and Cícha, Vojtěch and Arnon, Amir and Kruuse, Maris and Langbein, Jochen and Náhlik, András and Niemi, Milla and Pokorny, Boštjan and Colino-Rabanal, Victor J. and Rolandsen, Christer M. and Seiler, Andreas
(2021).
COVID-19 related travel restrictions prevented numerous wildlife deaths on roads: A comparative analysis of results from 11 countries.
Biological Conservation. 256
, 109076
[Research article]
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Abstract
Millions of wild animals are killed annually on roads worldwide. During spring 2020, the volume of road traffic was reduced globally as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. We gathered data on wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) from Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Israel, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and for Scotland and England within the United Kingdom. In all studied countries WVC statistics tend to be dominated by large mammals (various deer species and wild boar), while information on smaller mammals as well as birds are less well recorded. The expected number of WVC for 2020 was predicted on the basis of 2015–2019 WVC time series representing expected WVC numbers under normal traffic conditions. Then, the forecasted and reported WVC data were compared. The results indicate varying levels of WVC decrease between countries during the COVID-19 related traffic flow reduction (CRTR). While no significant change was determined in Sweden, where the state-wide response to COVID-19 was the least intensive, a decrease as marked as 37.4% was identified in Estonia. The greatest WVC decrease, more than 40%, was determined during the first weeks of CRTR for Estonia, Spain, Israel, and Czechia. Measures taken during spring 2020 allowed the survival of large numbers of wild animals which would have been killed under normal traffic conditions. The significant effects of even just a few weeks of reduced traffic, help to highlight the negative impacts of roads on wildlife mortality and the need to boost global efforts of wildlife conservation, including systematic gathering of roadkill data.
Authors/Creators: | Bíl, Michal and Andrášik, Richard and Cícha, Vojtěch and Arnon, Amir and Kruuse, Maris and Langbein, Jochen and Náhlik, András and Niemi, Milla and Pokorny, Boštjan and Colino-Rabanal, Victor J. and Rolandsen, Christer M. and Seiler, Andreas | ||||||
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Title: | COVID-19 related travel restrictions prevented numerous wildlife deaths on roads: A comparative analysis of results from 11 countries | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Biological Conservation | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2021 | ||||||
Volume: | 256 | ||||||
Article number: | 109076 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 6 | ||||||
ISSN: | 0006-3207 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 106 Biological Sciences (Medical to be 3 and Agricultural to be 4) > Ecology (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 405 Other Agricultural Sciences > Fish and Wildlife Management | ||||||
Keywords: | Wildlife-vehicle collisions, Wildlife crash reporting systems, Traffic flow, Ungulates, Mesocarnivores, COVID-19 lockdown | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-111381 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-111381 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
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Alternative URL: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109076 | ||||||
ID Code: | 23255 | ||||||
Faculty: | S - Faculty of Forest Sciences | ||||||
Department: | (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Ecology (S) > Dept. of Ecology | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 12 Apr 2021 14:23 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 12 Apr 2021 14:31 |
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