Citation

Abraham JO, Mumma MA. Sci. Rep. 2021; 11(1): e20391.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/s41598-021-99233-9

PMID

34650093

Abstract

Wildlife-vehicle collisions threaten both humans and wildlife, but we still lack information about the relationship between traffic volume and wildlife-vehicle collisions. The COVID-19 pandemic allowed us to investigate the effects of traffic volume on wildlife-vehicle collisions in the United States. We observed decreased traffic nationwide, particularly in densely populated states with low or high disease burdens. Despite reduced traffic, total collisions were unchanged; wildlife-vehicle collisions did decline at the start of the pandemic, but increased as the pandemic progressed, ultimately exceeding collisions in the previous year. As a result, nationwide collision rates were higher during the pandemic. We suggest that increased wildlife road use offsets the effects of decreased traffic volume on wildlife-vehicle collisions. Thus, decreased traffic volume will not always reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions.

Keywords: CoViD-19-Road-Traffic

Language: en