Identifying the hotspots of wildlife-vehicle collision on the Çankırı-Kırıkkale highway during summer

Authors: ALİ UĞUR ÖZCAN, NURİ KAAN ÖZKAZANÇ

Abstract: In this study, we identified hotspots of mammal-vehicle collisions that occurred on the Çankırı-Kırıkkale highway between May and October 2014. We collected 58 records from 6 species. Sixteen casualties occurred on the part of the road with low traffic volume (1818 vehicles/day) and 42 casualties occurred on the part with moderate traffic volume (4680 vehicles/day). The two species with the highest number of records were hedgehog Erinaceus concolor (n = 27) and red fox Vulpes vulpes (n = 21). Hotspots of mammal-vehicle collisions were detected with the CrimeStat3 program using 750-m bandwidth. We identified two spots of high incidence of roadkill and 3 spots of moderate incidence of roadkill on the highway. Strategies to reduce the incidence of roadkill should be considered for these hotspots.

Keywords: Hotspot, vehicle collision, wildlife, motorway, mammals, Turkey

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