Roadkill risk and population vulnerability in European birds and mammals

Grilo, C., Koroleva, E., Andrasik, R., Bil, M. and Gonzalez-Suarez, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5069-8900 (2020) Roadkill risk and population vulnerability in European birds and mammals. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 18 (6). pp. 323-328. ISSN 1540-9295 doi: 10.1002/fee.2216

Abstract/Summary

Roads represent a threat to biodiversity, primarily through increased mortality from collisions with vehicles. Although estimating roadkill rates is an important first step, how roads affect long-term population persistence must also be assessed. We developed a trait-based model to predict roadkill rates for terrestrial bird and mammalian species in Europe and used a generalized population model to estimate their long-term vulnerability to road mortality. We found that ~194 million birds and ~29 million mammals may be killed each year on European roads. The species that were predicted to experience the highest mortality rates due to roads were not necessarily the same as those whose long-term persistence was most vulnerable to road mortality. When evaluating which species or areas could be most affected by road development projects, failure to consider how roadkill affects populations may result in misidentifying appropriate targets for mitigation.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/89172
Identification Number/DOI	10.1002/fee.2216
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Publisher	Ecological Society of America
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