| Title |
Temporal patterns of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) traffic accidents in Lithuania: effects of daytime, season and lunar phase / |
| Authors |
Galinskaitė, Lina ; Ignatavičius, Gytautas |
| DOI |
10.3846/enviro.2023.838 |
| eISBN |
9786094763427 |
| Full Text |
|
| Is Part of |
12th International conference "Environmental Engineering", 27-28 April 2023, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania : selected papers / edited by Donatas Čygas and Rasa Vaiškūnaitė.. Vilnius : Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, 2023. p. [1-5].. eISSN 2029-7092. eISBN 9786094763427 |
| Keywords [eng] |
Wildlife–vehicle collisions(WVCs) ; time-dependent dynamics ; Lithuania ; roe deer, lunar illumination. |
| Abstract [eng] |
In many countries road safety and animal protection pose a serious problem due to wildlife-related accidents especially deer-vehicle accidents. Profound information of temporal and spatial patterns of deer-vehicle accidents is necessary for safe mitigation efforts and further accident analysis. We described the temporal patterns of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) roadkill’s (RDVC) occurring in the period 2014-2021 in Lithuania. Using a comprehensive dataset, consisting of 19,707 data points, we examined the influence of different time units (i.e. day of year, day of week, month) and moon illumination percentage. Therefore, we identified roe deer peak accident periods within the time units. Highest frequencies of RDVC occurred in May, November and December. A peak in RDVC occurred on Friday with a secondary peak on Saturday. Relationships between RDVC and lunar phases were analyzed, providing evidence for high frequencies of roe deer accidents during full moon phases. We believe that RDVC are dependent both on human activity in traffic (traffic volume, vehicle speed,) and wildlife activity (rut, aggressive territorial behavior). Overall our results highlight, that RDVC disturbance among time and space is nonrandom. Methods to effective reduce deer-vehicle accidents should be adapted to species-specific temporal periods or place and concentrated to short-term mitigation measures (e.g. speed limits, wildlife warning signs, traffic controls). |
| Published |
Vilnius : Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, 2023 |
| Type |
Conference paper |
| Language |
English |
| Publication date |
2023 |
| CC license |
|
