Large-scale evaluation of carnivore road mortality: the effect of landscape and local scale characteristics

Abstract

Traffic infrastructure is currently one of the main anthropogenic causes affecting carnivore populations, and understanding factors behind spatiotemporal patterns of road mortality is crucial in developing successful conservation measures. Here, we investigated the effect of landscape and local characteristics on road mortality of several carnivore species. Road-kill data from the period 2000–2014 were obtained from a nation-wide volunteer-based survey and Species Occurrence Database of the Czech Republic. From a total of 1020 recorded carnivore road-kills, the most frequently documented was the stone marten (24.2 %) followed by European otter (22.7 %) and red fox (20.2 %). At the landscape scale (1000 m radius), road-kills of habitat generalists (red fox, stone marten, European polecat, least weasel and stoat) were mainly detected in areas with a mixture of arable land and human settlements, while road-kills of habitat specialists (pine marten, Eurasian badger and European otter) and non-native species (raccoon dog and raccoon) were mainly found in areas with a high proportion of forests, grasslands and water bodies. At the local scale (50 m radius), the presence of linear habitats (forest edges, corridors) was positively linked to road-kills of European otter, stone marten, Eurasian badger, stoat, least weasel, European polecat and red fox. The presence of watercourses increased mortality risk in European otter and raccoon dog and oppositely decreased mortality risk in stone marten, least weasel and red fox. We documented a significant effect of road topography only for raccoons, whose road-kills were mostly found in parallel sections of roads relative to buried and raised roads. Based on our results, several mitigation measures that could serve in reducing carnivore mortality in human-dominated landscapes are suggested.