Factors affecting wildlife-vehicle collision on the expressway in a suburban area in northern Poland

Dariusz Jakubas , Marcin Ryś , Magdalena Lazarus

Abstract

Wildlife–vehicle collisions (WVC) pose a serious socio-economic and traffic safety issue. We investigated factors affecting the location and number of WVC on the expressway “Tri-City Bypass” in a suburban area in N Poland. We analysed WVC with large-sized (LSM; ungulates; 54% of roadkills) and small-sized mammals (SSM; mainly carnivores; 46% of roadkills) and both groups combined (AM). We identified WV C hotspots and analysed factors affectin g their spatial distribution with Poisson regression based on four sets of landscape and road-related features (area, patchiness, presence and other features). The most frequent mammal victims of WVCs were wild boar Sus scrofa (31%), roe deer Capreolus capreolus (21%) and European badger Meles meles (13%), among LSM, and red fox Vulpes vulpes (27%) among SSM. In general, our result s indicated that most WVCs occurred in areas with a higher number of fo rest patches and a higher total length of forest edge (AM, LSM), in curvy sections of the road (LSM). The number of WVCs was lower in locations covered by urb anized areas and grassland (LSM), in the sections with fences, exits and overpasses (LSM, AM). Th e road sections where there is a higher risk of severe collisions (involving large species) a re situated in areas where the Tri -City Bypass bisects a highly fore sted area, which serve as movement corridors for LSM between fragmented forest complexes. We conclude th at the number of WVCs can be reduced by preventing animals from accessing the road and ensuring a safe road crossing. This could be achieved by extending fencing and retrofitting some existing underpasses.