Monitoring roadkill in Spain: a three years survey during pandemic times

Abstract

Road-killed animal surveys are scarce in Spain compared to other countries. Also, the majority of the published papers about this issue, comprehends data analysis from particular species or involve only motorways or highways. This paper presents the monitoring of a common road during three years, from 1st January 2020 to 31st December 2022 (both included), in order to evaluate wildlife loss by car hits. At the end of the survey, 53 individuals from 19 different species were found. The most affected groups were mammals with the 75% of car collisions and birds which obtained the 23% of total roadkills. Only one reptile was registered during the sampling. End of spring and summer were the seasons where wildlife was affected in high way, while autumn was the one with less fauna affection. The landscape across the road seems to influence on the biodiversity loss and according to conservation interests, most of the registered animals belongs to endangered or protected species, especially birds and reptiles. Also domestic animals like cats and dogs were directly affected by vehicle collisions. Annual results showed that roadkill data increased along the three years of survey, being 2020 the year with less incidences, probably due to the mobility restrictions established during the COVID-19 crisis.

Mammal Roadkills in Lithuanian Urban Areas: A 15-Year Study

“…No reduction in urban roadkill in Poland during the COVID-19 period has been reported [68]. In Spain, roadkill numbers increased after a short period of reduction [39], in the USA, roadkill numbers decreased after a reduction in traffic volume under COVID-19 restrictions, but the collision rate mostly increased [69].…”

“…Therefore, the number of roadkilled animals is expected to change. In Spain, the number of roadkills on local roads has increased since 2020, when it was minimal due to movement restrictions, and domestic animals were affected [39].…”

Roadkill Patterns on Workdays, Weekends and Long Weekends: Anticipating the Implications of a Four-Day Work Week

“…Temporal and spatiotemporal analyses of the roadkill were carried out in many counties around the globe [1][2][3], in European countries [4][5][6][7], including those close to Lithuania [8][9][10][11]. Roadkill recording by citizen scientists was used as a part of worldwide projects on roadkill data collection [12], and these projects were successful in several countries [13,14].…”

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

“…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.…”

“…However, Lithuania is not on this list. Furthermore, findings from various countries have shown inconsistency: while some reported no decrease in roadkill numbers on fenced highways [ 29 ] or in urban areas [ 30 ], others observed differing patterns of decrease [ 31 ], and some even experienced a brief decrease followed by an increase in roadkill numbers [ 26 , 32 ]. However, for mammals, the presence of humans may have only temporary effects [ 33 ].…”