Abstract
Nowadays, wildlife road mortality is acknowledged as a main source of threatening long-term survival of wildlife. This paper as the first to analysis wild life vehicle collisions in Iran, aims to reconstruct and interpret the spatio-temporal patterns of WVCs on Asiaei highway in Golestan National Park (GNP). With the collaboration of environmental protection department of GNP, we identified about 1900 WVC Records involving 34 different species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians between 2004 and 2013. Mammals were involved in more than 50% of overall WVCs, among which wild boar (Sus scrofa), Golden Jackal (Canis aureus), Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes), hedgehog (Erinaceus concolor), stone marten (Martes foina) and porcupine (Hystrix indica) were involved in more than 90% of mammals’ mortalities; So, we focused on analyzing spatio-temporal pattern of vehicle collisions of these six mammal species. During the study period, these species have undergone 95% increase in road mortalities, averagely. Detailed temporal analyses exhibited an increasing trend of road mortalities from spring to summer and then a reducing one to late winter. It was shown that a large number of collisions occurred in holiday periods when recreational trips considerably increased the traffic volume of Asiaei highway. Preliminary inspection of spatial patterns using Kernel density analysis revealed six collision hotspots, mostly located in the road bends with densely forested land cover on both sides; the promenades along the road seemed to play a significant role too. Scale dependency analyses of collision patterns, demonstrated clustering pattern at micro scales less than 10 km, randomness at meso scales 10 - 20 km and both regularity and clustering at macro scales more than 20 km. This paper suggests that road mortality of common species in GNP is a momentous issue, which needs to be considered by relevant governmental and public organizations. We also emphasize that the analyses of spatial and temporal patterns of WVCs are fundamentals to plan for mitigate wildlife road mortality.
Highlights
To meet the demands of increasing human population and economic development, in past decades, the road networks were expanded and volume of traffic has rapidly increase [1]
Mammals were involved in more than 50% of total Wildlife Vehicle Collision (WVC) among which wild boar (Sus scrofa), Golden Jackal (Canis aureus), Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes), hedgehog (Erinaceus concolor), stone marten (Martes foina) and porcupine (Hystrix indica) take the largest partmore than 90% of mammals (Table 1)
We focused on analyzing spatio-temporal pattern of vehicle collisions of these six mammal species
Summary
To meet the demands of increasing human population and economic development, in past decades, the road networks were expanded and volume of traffic has rapidly increase [1]. In the United States, the total number of annual deer vehicle collision was estimated at more than 1 million in the early 1990s [15] causing 155 - 211 human fatalities, 13,713 - 29,000 human injuries and more than 1 billion US $ in property damage a year [15] [16]. While temporal variations in traffic kills can be linked to animal activity and behavior (which in turn are determined by biological characteristics e.g. the daily rhythm of foraging and resting, periodical migrations, mating and breeding habits and dispersal of juveniles) [23]-[25], key elements that affect the spatial patterns are population density, landscape structure and habitat distribution [26]. Location and timing of accidents can be influenced by traffic and road related factors [22] [27] [28], as well as temporary variations of environmental factors e.g. temperature, rainfall or snow cover [29]
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