A dataset of road-killed vertebrates collected via citizen science from 2014–2020

Abstract

Data on road-killed animals is essential for assessing the impact of roads on biodiversity. In most European countries data on road-killed huntable wildlife exists, but data on other vertebrate species (e.g. amphibians, reptiles, small mammals) is scarce. Therefore, we conducted a citizen science project on road-killed vertebrates as a useful supplement to data on huntable wildlife collected by public authorities. The dataset contains 15198 reports with 17163 individual road-killed vertebrates collected by 912 participants. The reports were made in 44 countries, but the majority of data was reported in Austria. We implemented a data validation routine which led to three quality levels. Reports in quality level 1 are published via GBIF, reports in quality level 2 via Zenodo and reports in quality level 3 were deleted. The dataset is relevant for the scientific community studying impacts of roads on fauna as well as for those who are responsible for road planning and implementing mitigation measures.

Urban roadkill assessment in Vienna reveals low incidence rates

“…All data used for the article were collected with apps from the citizen science project Roadkill. Data from project Roadkill are available on GBIF and Zenodo (Heigl et al, 2022).…”

Lockdown’s Silver Lining? Different Levels of Roadkill during the COVID-19 Times in Lithuania

“…Undoubtedly, data on roadkills allow the quantifying of road influence on biodiversity, particularly in higher vertebrates such as mammals and birds, but also, to a lesser extent, reptiles and amphibians [ 25 ]. Mammal roadkills have been found to be related to the day of the week and time of the day [ 24 , 54 ], but changes in animal activity due to climate changes and species abundance patterns should also be considered [ 55 ].…”

“…Many countries have already carried out roadkill analyses in relation to lockdowns [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. However, Lithuania is not on this list.…”

The contribution of citizen science in the surveillance of wildlife and related arthropods

“…GPS-transmitters that are fitted to the animals with a collar/ear tag to track their movements) in various environmental contexts, including natural parks or faunal reserve (Rafiq et al ., 2019 ; Ostermann-Miyashita et al ., 2022 ). Other studies aim to create maps on the distribution of wildlife employing volunteers to fill specific road-killed schedules (ENETWILD-consortium et al ., 2020 ; Raymond et al ., 2021 ; Heigl et al ., 2022 ). A substantial number of CS studies are based on camera trap (or camera capture) surveys, where participants collect images and/or videos of wild species that are further verified by experts (Swanson et al ., 2016 ; Caravaggi et al ., 2018 ; Lasky et al ., 2021 ).…”