Year: 2024
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The ecological effects of roads are far-reaching with millions of wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) occurring every year. This thesis aimed to quantify some of the species-specific and landscape-level effects within the UK. In Chapter 1, we provide an overview of the state of play regarding roads and wildlife. In Chapter 2, we use traffic reductions during nationwide COVID-19 lockdowns alongside eight years of WVC-records from citizen science project, The Road Lab, to investigate the traits that make species vulnerable on roads. We found an 80% reduction in WVCs and fewer WVCs for species with traits including nocturnality, large brain mass and short flight initiation distance, highlighting that species with these traits are most vulnerable under ‘normal’ traffic conditions. Ten years of European badger Meles meles WVC records were then used alongside environmental variables to investigate where and why badger roadkill ‘hotspots’ occur (Chapter 3). We found that WVC-risk generally coincides with predicted live badger distribution, but urban and suburban areas pose a relatively high risk of WVCs, and hotspots are primarily found in southern and central England. Chapter 4 quantifies ‘roadless areas’, finding that over 70% are smaller than 1 km2, and more than 80% are smaller than the average home range of mammal species commonly involved in WVCs. Additionally, over 50% of roadless areas are currently unprotected. WVC-risk increased as roadless area size decreased, highlighting the disproportionate threat species with larger home ranges face as a result of fragmentation. Finally, 18 years of police records are used to investigate the factors associated with road traffic accidents involving animals (Chapter 5), finding that they most commonly occur on 60 mph, unlit roads, and that motorcyclists and cyclists are most vulnerable to fatal collisions involving animals. These results could be used to identify priority locations for wildlife mitigation, to inform policy-makers about the extent of road-related impacts, and to educate drivers about the safety risks of WVCs.
Author: Raymond, Sarah
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7029080097