The Impact of Roadkill on Cervid Populations in Lithuania

Abstract

Cervid roadkill, including moose, red deer and roe deer, can pose a risk to drivers and are frequently registered. However, the roadkill influence on overall cervid populations is not fully known, especially by roadkill that are not officially registered. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of cervid roadkill on population abundance, evaluating (i) the proportion of ungulate–vehicle collisions not registered by official bodies, (ii) the number of roadkill in relation to hunted animals and (iii) the proportion of roadkill that occurs in forest habitat. The number of unreported roadkill was calculated based on a roadkill index assessed during 3815 registration sessions on main and national roads in Lithuania from 2002–2022. During this period, 373 moose, 712 red deer and 9179 roe deer roadkill were unreported, correlating to 13.8%, 95.8% and 31.1% of those registered by the Traffic Supervision Service. In conclusion, 39.5%, 17.5% and 20.1% of roadkill were registered on roads through forests. Moose roadkill amounted to a figure corresponding to 10% of those hunted, with the same figure for red deer being 1.8%, neither adding much mortality. At 16.5%–16.6%, the figure for roe deer might be important.

Phylogenetic characterisation of tick-borne encephalitis virus from Lithuania

“…A recent study investigated the impact of roadkill on overall cervid populations (including moose, red deer and roe deer) in Lithuania. The study showed that the number of roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus ) killed on the roads from 2014–2020 increased exponentially [ 43 ]. The European “Via Baltica” highway is one of the most intensive transit traffic roads in Lithuania, which connects Lithuania and neighbouring Poland.…”

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

“…Our analysis focuses specifically on the effects of reduced human activity, based on the limitations of in-country travel (according to [ 51 ]), which, in some periods, even included physical blocking of roads [ 56 ]. We do not believe that reporting changes [ 4 ] had any influence on the patterns we identified, as we do not rely on citizen science for the reporting of roadkills [ 45 , 50 ].…”

“…Species were mostly accurately recorded or, where not, were attributed to an “unknown mammal”. The details of data collection are discussed in detail in Balčiauskas et al [ 45 , 50 ].…”

“…For the last group of roads, AADT data are not available, and the data coverage is limited to the period 2007–2022. Additionally, we analyzed MVCs and RDVCs on the main road A14, this being the most sampled road in Lithuania [ 45 ]. During the COVID-19 restriction months, 50 registration sessions were performed, each covering 62 km of road.…”

“…This species appears to be capable of rapid changes in behavior, adjusting its activity patterns to anthropogenic load [ 44 ]. Therefore, we selected roe deer as the focal species for our analysis of lockdown influence, as it accounts for the highest number of roadkills among ungulates in Lithuania [ 45 ].…”