Kreling, S.E.S., Gaynor, K.M. and Coon, C.A.C. (2019), Roadkill distribution at the wildland-urban interface. Jour. Wild. Mgmt., 83: 1427-1436. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.21692

As urbanization rapidly increases around the globe, the use of roads as prominent feature inthe wildland-urban interface has created an increase in wildlife- vehicle collisions. This article explores the spatial, temporal, and species-specific patterns of roadkill located along Interstate (I-280) in California. They also explored the impacts of land cover, fencing, lighting, and traffic on these areas and the associated species. This study aimed to learn more about wildlife movement in relevance to wildlife-vehicle collisions in an area with increasing urbanization.

The study area spanned over a 50km stretch of I-280 in the San Franciso Bay area in California. This are was chosen due its abundance of fast moving vehicles and its proximity to nearby residential development in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The average amount of traffic that reaches I-280 in a day is an estimated 125,000 cars a day in some sections of the highway. The area to the east of the I-280 is heavily developed and bordered by 3 major cities with populations over >70,000. To the west of I-280, there are several wildland habitats that are important to several wildlife species such as coyote, black-tailed deer, and mountain lion.

To assess roadkill data, they used data from the Road Ecology Centers California Roadkill Observation System which relies on data from citizen science volunteers. They then used data from Google to categorize information on fencing and lighting. The study also looks at other factors such as season, moon phase, and land cover. They compared this data from the East side of I-280 and the West side of I-280.

The results of this study found that roadkill was present throughout the whole study site, but more common in the north. More raccoon roadkill observations were observed in the north while deer roadkill was observed more uniformly throughout the study site. For all individual species, traffic had a negative correlation with roadkill. There was no indirect relationship between moonlight and roadkill for any other species. Road kill was more common in areas with less developed land which could represent the species either being attracted to development, them retreating to wildlands, or a combination of the two.

I chose this article because urbanization is rapidly increasing in the United States and wildlife-vehicle collisions are becoming more common as a result of this urbanization. I thought this paper did a good job of exploring the different variables that could be explaining the wildlife-vehicle colllisons. I think this research is a good stepping stone for further species specific research that could be done on roadkill and wildlife-vehicle collisions in urban areas.