Temporal and spatial patterns of small vertebrate roadkill in a supercity of eastern China

Abstract

An assessment of animal roadkill can help develop road mitigation measures. This article is the first to report data on animal-vehicle collisions (AVCs) in Nanjing, a supercity in eastern China. The research was conducted on a 224.27 km stretch of nine roads in Nanjing. In the period, between November 2020 and October 2021, 26 fortnightly monitoring missions were conducted to gather roadkill carcasses so that we could analyze their temporal and spatial distribution patterns. A total of 259 carcasses were collected, comprising 22 different species, of which 46.42% were mammals and 48.81% were birds. Cats and dogs are the most roadkill mammals, and blackbirds and sparrows are the most roadkill birds. The temporal analysis demonstrated that the peak of vertebrate roadkill occurred from May to July. Spatial analysis showed that the distribution patterns of vertebrate roadkill on different roads varied with a generally non-random distribution and aggregation. By mapping accidents using kernel density analysis, we were able to pinpoint locations that were at high risk for roadkill. Due to the fortnightly survey, our results would underestimate the casualties, even if, our study suggests that the problem of car accidents due to animals should be a cause for concern, and the results of the analysis of temporal and spatial patterns contribute to the establishment of mitigation measures.

Keywords

• Roadkills
• Mammals
• Road ecology
• Biological conservation
• Wildlife
• Nanjing