Trends and spatial patterns in ungulate-vehicle collisions in Sweden

I studied trends and the spatial variation in ungulate-vehicle collisions (UVC) in Sweden varying the spatial resolution in order to test the hypothesis that UVC are proportional to animal density and traffic volume. Spatial patterns were studied at the level of individual hunting areas (N = 311), moose management districts (N = 95), and counties (N = 22), whereas trends in UVC were studied at national, county and district level covering periods of 30,16 and 12 years, respectively. During 1970–1999 the overall number of reported collisions with moose Alces alces and roe deer Capreolus capreolus was closely correlated with changes in annual game bags and the increase in traffic volume. Large-scale spatial variations in UVC also showed a strong correlation with harvest and traffic. The ratio of collision numbers to harvest, however, increased significantly over time, suggesting a growing importance of traffic over ungulate management. With increased resolution, other environmental factors such as preferred habitat, road density and the presence of road underpasses that can provide passages for wildlife, gained significance over ungulate density and traffic volume. My results suggest that the relationship between animal abundance, road traffic, mitigation measures and collision numbers are not linear. For future prediction, evaluation and mitigation of UVC in Sweden, improved knowledge about passage design, fence location, and the occurrence of UVC in time and space is needed.

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