County‐Level Factors Contributing to Deer‐Vehicle Collisions in Arkansas

Farrell, Michael C.; Tappe, Philip A.

doi:10.2193/2006-085

Cited by 37 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Our results support a number of previous studies showing that the number of UVC's are positively related to population density and traffic volume, and that weather influence the number of UVC (McCaffery 1973, Lavsund and Sandegren 1991, Mysterud 2004, Seiler 2004, Dussault et al 2006, Farrell and Tappe 2007. However, the temporal effects varied between areas, where the effect sizes were close to zero in several counties.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Large-scale spatiotemporal variation in road mortality of moose: Is it all about population density?

et al. 2011

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Ungulate‐vehicle collisions (UVC) constitute a widespread and increasing problem in large parts of the world. This has generated an intensive search for mitigating measures, but often based on a weak understanding of the underlying spatiotemporal factors. We examined the effects of harvest density (a proxy for moose density), traffic‐related variables and climate on the spatiotemporal variation in number of moose‐vehicle collisions (MVC) in 14 Norwegian counties based on 31 year of data. Moose density was the most important factor explaining the variation in MVC, both within and between counties. In addition, the spatiotemporal variation in MVC was positively related to traffic volume (private car mileage) and snow depth, and negatively related to winter temperature. The relationship between traffic volume and temporal variation in MVC was stronger in counties with general low traffic volume, possibly because high traffic volume can act as a barrier to moose road crossings. Likewise, the temporal effect of snow depth was mainly present in counties with on average deep snow, i.e., where it constitutes a constraint on moose movement and space use during winter. Our study highlights the different importance between areas of the factors underlying the spatiotemporal variation in MVC. A notable exception was the variation in moose density, which follows an isometric scaling to the variation in MVC in all counties. Thus, a given percentage decrease in moose density is likely to return a similar percentage decrease in MVC. A significant population reduction may therefore be an efficient mitigating measure to reduce the number of MVC in Norway. From a harvesting and conservation point of view, other possible preventive measures to reduce MVC should also be considered. However, because of the strong temporal effects of moose density and snow depth, evaluations of other mitigating actions should always seek to control for temporal variation in these variables.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Large-scale spatiotemporal variation in road mortality of moose: Is it all about population density?

et al. 2011

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“…We selected these counties because they had the lowest densities of roads and thereby represented the least urban counties in each study area. Urbanization has been identified as an important, county-level, predictor for the incidence of WVCs with ungulates (Farrell and Tappe, 2007;Finder et al, 1999;Iverson and Iverson, 1999). For these counties, we sampled deer-and moose-vehicle collisions to represent levels of 0-100% underreporting in 5% increments.…”

Section: Evaluating Sensitivity To Biased Reportingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Underreporting of wildlife-vehicle collisions does not hinder predictive models for large ungulates

Snow

Porter

Williams

2015

Biological Conservation

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a b s t r a c tConflicts from wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) pose serious challenges for managing and conserving large ungulates throughout the world. However, underreporting of large proportions of WVCs (i.e., two-thirds of WVCs in some cases) creates concern for relying on governmental databases to inform management strategies of WVCs. Our objective was to test the sensitivity of WVC studies to underreporting using 2 species of large ungulates that experience substantial incidences of collisions but exist in different environmental settings: white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in agricultural-dominated central Illinois and moose (Alces alces) in forest-dominated western Maine, USA. We estimated baseline relationships between the landscape, traffic, and abundance of wildlife on the probabilities of WVCs using the total number of reported WVCs. Then, we simulated underreporting by randomly excluding reports of WVCs and evaluated for relative changes in precision, parameter estimates, and prediction. Point estimates of the relationships between environmental influences and WVCs for both species were reliable until high rates of underreporting occurred (P70%). When underreporting occurred with spatial bias, shifts in point estimates were detected only for variables that spatially-corresponded with the rate of reporting. Prediction estimates for both species were also reliable until high rates of underreporting occurred (P75%). These findings suggest that predictive models generate reliable estimates about WVCs with large ungulates unless underreporting is severe; possibly because they occur in non-random patterns (i.e., hotspots) and variability in their environment influences is low. We recommend that concern about underreporting not impede research with existing databases, such as those in this study, for analyzing predictive models and developing management strategies for reducing WVCs.

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“…Even though the number of these accidents was quite low at that time, a positive correlation between deer density and the number of DVCs was found. More recent studies also found a positive correlation between the number of DVCs and absolute density estimates of roe deer and white-tailed deer [18], [11], [19]. The relationship between deer density and DVCs cannot, however, be assumed to be linear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Large-Scale Model-Based Assessment of Deer-Vehicle Collision Risk

2012

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Ungulates, in particular the Central European roe deer Capreolus capreolus and the North American white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus, are economically and ecologically important. The two species are risk factors for deer–vehicle collisions and as browsers of palatable trees have implications for forest regeneration. However, no large-scale management systems for ungulates have been implemented, mainly because of the high efforts and costs associated with attempts to estimate population sizes of free-living ungulates living in a complex landscape. Attempts to directly estimate population sizes of deer are problematic owing to poor data quality and lack of spatial representation on larger scales. We used data on 74,000 deer–vehicle collisions observed in 2006 and 2009 in Bavaria, Germany, to model the local risk of deer–vehicle collisions and to investigate the relationship between deer–vehicle collisions and both environmental conditions and browsing intensities. An innovative modelling approach for the number of deer–vehicle collisions, which allows nonlinear environment–deer relationships and assessment of spatial heterogeneity, was the basis for estimating the local risk of collisions for specific road types on the scale of Bavarian municipalities. Based on this risk model, we propose a new “deer–vehicle collision index” for deer management. We show that the risk of deer–vehicle collisions is positively correlated to browsing intensity and to harvest numbers. Overall, our results demonstrate that the number of deer–vehicle collisions can be predicted with high precision on the scale of municipalities. In the densely populated and intensively used landscapes of Central Europe and North America, a model-based risk assessment for deer–vehicle collisions provides a cost-efficient instrument for deer management on the landscape scale. The measures derived from our model provide valuable information for planning road protection and defining hunting quota. Open-source software implementing the model can be used to transfer our modelling approach to wildlife–vehicle collisions elsewhere.

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County‐Level Factors Contributing to Deer‐Vehicle Collisions in Arkansas

Cited by 37 publications

References 7 publications

Large-scale spatiotemporal variation in road mortality of moose: Is it all about population density?

Large-scale spatiotemporal variation in road mortality of moose: Is it all about population density?

Underreporting of wildlife-vehicle collisions does not hinder predictive models for large ungulates

Large-Scale Model-Based Assessment of Deer-Vehicle Collision Risk

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