Factors Influencing the Location of Deer-Vehicle Accidents in Iowa

Hubbard, Michael W.; Danielson, Brent J.; Schmitz, Richard A.

doi:10.2307/3802740

Cited by 129 publications

(122 citation statements)

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“…DVCs increased by 54 percent in Pennsylvania from 1994 to 2000 (Williams, 2003a), by 51 percent in Iowa from 1990 to 1997 (Hubbard et al, 2000), and by 69 percent in five states combined (Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, and Utah) from 1985(HSIS, 1995. In 1999, 16 percent of all reported traffic crashes in Wisconsin were DVCs, up from 5 percent in 1978 (DVCR Working Group, 2000).…”

Section: Estimated a Northmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methods to Reduce Traffic Crashes Involving Deer: What Works and What Does Not

Hedlund¹,

Curtis

et al. 2004

Traffic Injury Prevention

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More than 1.5 million traffic crashes involving deer are estimated to occur each year in the United States. These crashes produce at least $1.1 billion in vehicle damage and about 150 fatalities annually. Deer-related crashes are increasing as both deer populations and vehicular travel increase.Many methods have been used in attempts to reduce deer crashes, often with little scientific foundation and limited evaluation. This paper summarizes the methods and reviews the evidence of their effectiveness and the situations in which each may be useful. The only widely accepted method with solid evidence of effectiveness is well-designed and maintained fencing, combined with underpasses or overpasses as appropriate. Herd reduction is controversial but can be effective. Deer whistles appear useless. Roadside reflectors appear to have little long-term effect, although additional well-designed evaluations are needed before firm conclusions can be drawn. Both temporary passive signs and active signs appear promising in specific situations, but considerable research is required to evaluate long-term driver response and to improve and test deer detection technology for active signs. Other methods using advanced technology require substantial additional research and evaluation.

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Section: Estimated a Northmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methods to Reduce Traffic Crashes Involving Deer: What Works and What Does Not

Hedlund¹,

Curtis

et al. 2004

Traffic Injury Prevention

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“…For example, the amount of forest cover increased deer (Odocoileus spp.) collisions in Illinois and Iowa, but not in Minnesota (Finder et al 1999, Hubbard et al 2000, Nielsen et al 2003. Population density was the most important factor explaining moose (Alces alces)-vehicle collisions in Norway, but not Newfoundland (Joyce andMahoney 2001, Rolandsen et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Context‐dependent effects on spatial variation in deer‐vehicle collisions

Clevenger

Barrueto

Gunson³

et al. 2015

Ecosphere

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Abstract. Identifying factors that contribute to the risk of wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) has been a key focus of wildlife managers, transportation safety planners and road ecologists for over three decades. Despite these efforts, few generalities have emerged which can help predict the occurrence of WVCs, heightening the uncertainty under which conservation, wildlife and transportation management decisions are made. Undermining this general understanding is the use of study area boundaries that are incongruent with major biophysical gradients, inconsistent data collection protocols among study areas and species-specific interactions with roads. We tested the extent to which factors predicting the occurrence of deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs) were general among five study areas distributed over a 11,400-km 2 region in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. In spite of our system-wide focus on the same genus (i.e., Odocoileus hemionus and O. virginianus), study area delineation along major biophysical gradients, and use of consistent data collection protocols, we found that large-scale biophysical processes influence the effect of localized factors. At the local scale, factors predicting WVC occurrence varied greatly between individual study areas. Distance to water was an important predictor of WVCs in three of the five study areas, while other variables had modest importance in only two of the five study areas. Thus, lack of generality in factors predicting WVCs may have less to do with methodological or taxonomic differences among study areas than the large-scale, biophysical context within which the data were collected. These results highlight the critical need to develop a conceptual framework in road ecology that can unify the disparate results emerging from field studies on WVC occurrence.

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“…Despite a long history of studies of road mortality on white-tailed deer (e.g. Bellis and Graves 1971;Puglisi et al 1974;Romin and Bissonette 1996;Finder et al 1999;Hubbard et al 2000;Grovenburg et al 2008;McShea et al 2008), no study has tested for an effect of roads on deer abundance. A difficulty in testing for such an effect is that road density may be negatively correlated with deer habitat variables such as forest amount and forest edge amount, making it difficult to isolate the effects of roads on deer abundance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of paved road density on abundance of white-tailed deer

2012

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Context. Although~3% of white-tailed deer are killed on roads each year, no previous study has tested for an effect of roads on deer abundance. This is difficult to do because road density is generally negatively correlated with deer habitat availability.Aims. Our goal was to determine whether roads affect deer abundance.Methods. First, we used an existing dataset from Pennsylvania, USA, to determine a range of paved road densities representing a significant range in deer per capita mortality. We then conducted a field study in eastern Ontario, Canada, with sample sites for relative deer abundance selected such that (1) road density in the surrounding landscapes varied over this same range, and (2) there were low correlations across landscapes between road density and deer habitat availability. The latter allowed us to isolate the effects of roads from the effects of habitat on deer abundance. We indexed relative deer abundance using a combination of pellet samples and track counts.Key results. Unexpectedly, we observed a positive relationship between relative deer abundance and paved road density. Conclusions. We speculate that this positive relationship is due to (1) reduced deer predation and/or perceived predation risk and/or hunting pressure in landscapes with higher road density and/or (2) provision of a resource or service by roads, the benefits of which outweigh the road mortality.Implications. We found no evidence that road mortality places deer populations at risk of decline, at least over the range of road density values in our study. Therefore we conclude that road mortality is not a conservation concern for white-tailed deer in ecological contexts similar to our study areas.

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Factors Influencing the Location of Deer-Vehicle Accidents in Iowa

Cited by 129 publications

References 0 publications

Methods to Reduce Traffic Crashes Involving Deer: What Works and What Does Not

Methods to Reduce Traffic Crashes Involving Deer: What Works and What Does Not

Context‐dependent effects on spatial variation in deer‐vehicle collisions

Effect of paved road density on abundance of white-tailed deer

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