Using the Dead to Mo Nitor the Living: Ca N Road Kill Counts Detect Trends in Mammal Abundance ?

George, Livingston; MacPherson, Jenny; Balmforth, Z.; Bright, P. W.

doi:10.15666/aeer/0901_027041

Cited by 23 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The large quantity of data gathered in citizen science projects results in a higher chance to detect rare species. This way "the dead can also be used to monitor the living" or more precisely to improve distribution maps (George et al 2011). Even new species can be discovered by monitoring road kills (Auliya 2002, Covaciu-Marcov et al 2012).…”

Section: Roving Records Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen science and smartphones take roadkill monitoring to the next level

Vercayie¹,

Herremans²

2015

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Road networks, even in industrialized countries, become denser year after year and traffic volumes continue to increase at a steady pace. It is imperative that we monitor the impact of this trend on wildlife, but monitoring roads for flattened fauna is a time consuming effort and roadkill monitoring projects conducted up till now have been relatively small scale both in terms of time and space. This hampers the progress of road ecology analyses at the population level and at larger landscape extents.We demonstrate that citizen science projects in combination with smartphones and other new technologies allow analysis at this level and extent, and simultaneously offer more complete data for safer transportation and mitigation of roadkill hotspots. Monitoring roadkill with citizen scientists poses certain challenges regarding data quality and people management, but we show that these challenges can be addressed, which allows researchers to benefit from the many other advantages and possible applications of monitoring roadkill with citizen scientists, including raising public awareness on the matter.

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Section: Roving Records Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen science and smartphones take roadkill monitoring to the next level

Vercayie¹,

Herremans²

2015

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“…anurans, Crouch & Paton, ; whales, Simard et al ., ) and camera trapping, live trapping, hair detection and road casualty data for terrestrial mammals (e.g. George et al ., ; Swan et al ., ). For marine vertebrates, breeding aggregations are often monitored as an index of overall population status (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting green shoots of recovery: the importance of long‐term individual‐based monitoring of marine turtles

Stokes

Fuller

Glen

et al. 2014

Animal Conservation

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Population monitoring is an essential part of evaluating the effectiveness of management interventions for conservation. Coastal breeding aggregations of marine vertebrate species that come ashore to pup or nest provide an opportunistic window of observation into otherwise widely dispersed populations. Green turtle (Chelonia mydas) nesting on the north and west coasts of northern Cyprus has been monitored consistently and exhaustively since 1993, with an intensive saturation tagging programme running at one key site for the same duration. This historically depleted nesting population is showing signs of recovery, possibly in response to nest protection approaching two decades, with increasing nest numbers and rising levels of recruitment. Strong correlation between year-to-year magnitude of nesting and the proportion of new breeders in the nesting cohort implies that recruitment of new individuals to the breeding population is an important driver of this recovery trend. Recent changes in fishing activities may be impacting the local juvenile neritic stage, however, which may hinder this potential recovery. Individuals returning to breed after two years laid fewer clutches than those returning after three or four years, demonstrating a trade-off between remigration interval and breeding output. Average clutch frequencies have remained stable around a median of three clutches a year per female despite the demographic shift towards new nesters, which typically lay fewer clutches in their first season. We show that where local fecundity has been adequately assessed, the use of average clutch frequencies can be a reliable method for deriving nester abundance from nest counts. Index sites where individual-based monitoring is possible will be important in monitoring long-term climate driven changes in reproductive rates.bs_bs_banner Animal Conservation. Print

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“…Biodiversity data collated as roadkill can be used to examine both long-and short-term changes in population trends because roadkill numbers can accurately reflect live population densities (Baker et al 2004;Gehrt 2002;George et al 2011). The data collated for roadkill can therefore be used to estimate species trends without the need for observations of the live animals (for example rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus, George et al 2011) and urban foxes (Baker et al 2004)), or to evaluate spatial differences in population density (e.g.…”

Section: Population Trends and Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4 Infographic outlining the five major areas where consistently, systematically, and extensively monitoring roadkill has facilitated our knowledge of five critical areas of ecological study in scientific research (Heigl and Zaller 2016). As roadkill numbers are strongly and positively associated with the local abundance of live animals (Gehrt 2002;Baker et al 2004;George et al 2011;Pettett et al 2017), roadkill monitoring can be used to track long-term changes in population dynamics (Capula et al 2014). Roadkill records can be used to 'fill in the blanks' on species distribution maps when the live animal is rarely or infrequently seen, as well as for monitoring the spread of species that are both recolonising and invading (Caley et al 2015;Calenge et al 2015;Croose 2016), and this species tracking could also include monitoring of changing animal behavioural patterns (Haigh 2012;Madden and Perkins 2017;Sovada et al 1998).…”

Section: Roadkill Monitoring and Ecology-opportunities For The Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

The value of monitoring wildlife roadkill

2020

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The number of wildlife-vehicle collisions has an obvious value in estimating the direct effects of roads on wildlife, i.e. mortality due to vehicle collisions. Given the nature of the data-species identification and location-there is, however, much wider ecological knowledge that can be gained by monitoring wildlife roadkill. Here, we review the added value and opportunities provided by these data, through a series of case studies where such data have been instrumental in contributing to the advancement of knowledge in species distributions, population dynamics, and animal behaviour, as well as informing us about health of the species and of the environment. We propose that consistently, systematically, and extensively monitoring roadkill facilitates five critical areas of ecological study: (1) monitoring of roadkill numbers, (2) monitoring of population trends, (3) mapping of native and invasive species distributions, (4) animal behaviour, and (5) monitoring of contaminants and disease. The collection of such data also offers a valuable opportunity for members of the public to be directly involved in scientific data collection and research (citizen science). Through continuing to monitor wildlife roadkill, we can expand our knowledge across a wide range of ecological research areas, as well as facilitating investigations that aim to reduce both the direct and indirect effects of roads on wildlife populations.

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Using the Dead to Mo Nitor the Living: Ca N Road Kill Counts Detect Trends in Mammal Abundance ?

Cited by 23 publications

References 34 publications

Citizen science and smartphones take roadkill monitoring to the next level

Citizen science and smartphones take roadkill monitoring to the next level

Detecting green shoots of recovery: the importance of long‐term individual‐based monitoring of marine turtles

The value of monitoring wildlife roadkill

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