The project „Wild animals and traffic — reduction of traffic-caused animal losses“ was started in 2008 with Ökoimpulse PM GmbH as project executing organization under the scientific project management of Mag. Wolfgang Steiner, Institute of Wildlife Biology and Game Management, DIBB, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna. Funding was provided by the hunting association of Lower Austria, the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology and the Austrian Road Safety Board. Funding of technical approaches was provided by the road authority and government of Lower Austria, insurance companies and local hunters. The aim of this study was to establish an environment of intensive cooperation and data collection to enable detailed research of factors contributing to game vehicle accidents and their prevention. In intensive preparations a platform of cooperation was formed, including authorities, stakeholder, land-user and industry. A comprehensive literature search provided more than 1.000 scientific papers, reports and records. Preventive methods were selected according to the regulations of the Austrian road traffic act, scientific studies and reports from practice. Nationally and internationally detailed data on roadkill is small. Within the project a roadkill data sheet was developed, enabling a previously unmatched insight in the spatio-temporal distribution of roadkill and its contributing factors. The analysis of the gathered information is fundamental for the effective use of different preventive methods and expected results concerning their “economically worth”. In 2009 and 2010 a total of 6.795 optic and 1.125 acoustic wildlife warning reflectors were installed. Additionally 16 units of olfactoric repellents and accompanying measures were applied. In total a length of 130 km B-roads in 53 hunting areas in Lower Austria was equipped with different preventive measures. Additionally 300 km B-roads without equipment were monitored. Supervision and control of technical prevention methods lead to a comprehensive insight regarding montage, operation, amenities and handicaps of the utilized devices different versions of equipment. Intensive contact and cooperation with manufacturers of wildlife warning reflectors resulted in substantial upgrades of reflector devices and new product development. The effectiveness of preventive measures depends of course on its status in time. Therefore a valuation code was developed to document the situation of test sections. According to this data a back-up of 10% of the used reflector devices per year is sufficient to compensate reflector losses through accidents, thievery and road-works. In total the hunters recorded 2.330 road kills on the test sections in 2009 and 2010 (45% roe deer, 45% brown hare, 10% other wild animals). One information gathered in the data sheets is whether a recorded roadkill resulted in a police report or not. Unfortunately the originally planned survey of police roadkill — data and the further comparison with the information of the projects roadkill - data sheet was not possible. Based on the data sheets only 30% of the deer-vehicle-accidents on monitored test sections in 2009 and 35% in 2010 resulted in a police dataset. Thus police roadkill data is not qualified as a tool to picture the factual roadkill situation. The roadkill ratio between male and female roe deer was 1:1,65 in 2009 and 1:1,1 in 2010. Both years showed 20% traffic losses in kids, 25% in one-year-old and 55% in older roe deer. The analysis of the monthly distribution of road kills shows one distinct peak in later spring / summer 2009 and two peaks (spring, autumn) 2010. The high losses of brown hare seemed to be the basic cause of the distinct peak in 2009. The day of the week distribution of road kills shows highest numbers at the beginning of the week (Monday, Tuesday) and lowest roadkill numbers on weekends. The distribution of traffic losses during different parts of the day shows 51% of road kills during night, 12% during twilight (dusk and dawn) and 39% during daylight conditions. A distinct peak in roadkill-numbers was recorded during 5:00 und 9:00 am and one peak between 18:00 and 23:00 pm with brown hare accidents being responsible for the peak in the morning hours and deer-vehicle-accidents for the evening peak. Based on the official statistics the numbers of deer-vehicle-accidents between 2009 and 2010 decreased in Austria by 2,7% and in Lower Austria by 7,7%. The hunting areas with mitigation methods showed an average decrease of 22,7% and equipped test sections of 30,5%. Test sections with optic wildlife warning reflectors displayed an average reduction of 25% and sections with optic and acoustic wildlife warning reflectors of 42% of previous year accidents. Two test sections with optic and acoustic wildlife warning reflectors in combination with olfactoric repellents showed a reduction of 70%. During the project a basis of calculation to classify a local roadkill problem was developed. The calculated value defines the need for action for authorities, hunters and stakeholder. Based on official data, expert consultation and calculations the annual economic loss arising from animal-vehicle-accidents in Austria is estimated at 160 Mio. € and the financial benefit of mitigating one single roe deer accident is estimated at 3.000,- € enabling calculations on the cost-benefit-ratio of mitigation techniques. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting