Comparing Road-Kill Datasets from Hunters and Citizen Scientists in a Landscape Context

Florian Heigl,Wolfgang Steiner,Franz Suppan,Thomas Bauer,Carina Stretz,Johann Zaller,Gregor Laaha

doi:10.3390/rs8100832

Florian Heigl, Wolfgang Steiner + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/rs8100832

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Abstract

Road traffic has severe effects on animals, especially when road-kills are involved. In many countries, official road-kill data are provided by hunters or police; there are also road-kill observations reported by citizen scientists. The aim of the current study was to test whether road-kill reports by hunters stem from similar landscapes than those reported by citizen scientists. We analysed the surrounding landscapes of 712 road-kill reportings of European hares in the province of Lower Austria. Our data showed that road-killed hares reported both by hunters and citizens are predominantly surrounded by arable land. No difference of hedges and solitary trees could be found between the two datasets. However, significant differences in landcover classes and surrounding road networks indicate that hunters’ and citizen scientists’ data are different. Hunters reported hares from landscapes with significantly higher percentages of arable land, and greater lengths of secondary roads. In contrast, citizens reported hares from landscapes with significantly higher percentages of urban or industrial areas and greater lengths of motorways, primary roads, and residential roads. From this we argue that hunters tend to report data mainly from their hunting areas, whereas citizens report data during their daily routine on the way to/from work. We conclude that a citizen science approach is an important source for road-kill data when used in addition to official data with the aim of obtaining an overview of road-kill events on a landscape scale.

Highlights

Roads are omnipresent in populated regions and are an integral part of our environment that cannot be ignored when studying animals in cultural landscapes
712 road-killed hares were reported in our study area of Lower Austria in 2013 and 2014
Since hunters reported hares surrounded by significantly higher percentages of Arable Land, it fits that hares reported by hunters have greater lengths of secondary roads in the surrounding road network, which are characteristic of rural areas

Summary

Introduction

Roads are omnipresent in populated regions and are an integral part of our environment that cannot be ignored when studying animals in cultural landscapes. The field of road ecology is an emerging sub-discipline within ecology [1,2]. Roads can have large and diverse effects on many animal species [3]. Positive effects like attraction through resources and use as habitat and/or corridors for movement exist, the negative effects predominate [4]. One of the most direct negative effects of roads on animals is road-kill, along with habitat loss through roads, habitat degradation through noise, light, water, and air pollution, or movement barriers such as fences or high traffic intensities [2,5]. The frequency of road-kills is influenced by factors such as Remote Sens. The frequency of road-kills is influenced by factors such as Remote Sens. 2016, 8, 832; doi:10.3390/rs8100832 www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing

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