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

Authors : ALİ UĞUR ÖZCAN, NURİ KAAN ÖZKAZANÇ

Pages : 722-730

View : 12 | Download : 8

Publication Date : 0000-00-00

Article Type : Research Paper

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 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1818 vehicles/day); and 42 casualties occurred on the part with moderate traffic volume insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(4680 vehicles/day);. The two species with the highest number of records were hedgehog Erinaceus concolor insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(n = 27); and red fox Vulpes vulpes insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(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