Vehicle-wildlife collisions are a costly problem, putting the lives of humans and animals at risk and threatening conservation efforts, not to mention the cost of damages incurred by both transport infrastructure managers and users.
However, a French research team's groundbreaking development could be the key to reducing the number and severity of vehicle-wildlife collisions, with potential applications to numerous forms of transportation — even personal vehicles.
Researchers of the new study, published in the Nature Conservation journal, utilized ecological modeling software and camera trap networks to map collision hotspots where roe deer and wild boar crossed train tracks.
After the data was processed, researchers were able to determine the probable density of animals in every part of a region, using data collected from just a few points in the area. In other words, researchers could map the relative abundance of species and, therefore, the risk of vehicle-wildlife collision along railroad tracks.
The revelation has huge implications for transportation infrastructure, with the ability to significantly reduce the number of accidents between animals and humans.
Vehicle-wildlife collisions occur when animals cross transportation infrastructure unexpectedly, especially in habitat areas and when humans' visibility is limited or low. National crash databases estimate the total number of collisions between wildlife and vehicles at 300,000 per year, however, the United States Federal Highway Administration estimates the actual number is likely much closer to 1 or 2 million due to the fact that many crashes go unreported.
These collisions are dangerous to both humans and wildlife, with vehicle-wildlife collisions injuring more than 26,000 and killing over 200 people each year. Even more animals are at risk, with an estimated 10 million dying each year from such incidents.
Endangered wildlife species are the most threatened by vehicle-wildlife crashes. In FHWA's vehicle-wildlife collision reduction report to Congress, 21 federally listed threatened or endangered animal species in the U.S. were identified as having road mortality as one of the major threats to their survival.
In addition to the sheer number of injuries and loss of life in both humans and animals, vehicle and infrastructure destruction caused by these collisions is expensive. FHWA's study found that accidents involving vehicles and wildlife cost Americans approximately $8 billion in property damages every year.
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Definitely 👍 With any hope, developments like the camera trap method utilized in this study can prevent such damage caused by vehicle-wildlife collisions in the near future.
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Although the method used in this study can be easily applied to any transportation infrastructure, more work is required to develop the performance of cameras in operative-like conditions and collect more data to better train the ecological modeling technology for mapping.
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