Oddone Aquino Ayrton Gino Humberto Emilio, Nkomo S'phumelele Lucky
Discipline of Geography, School of Agriculture, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4041, South Africa.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Mar 12;11(3):799. doi: 10.3390/ani11030799.
The development and expansion of road networks have profoundly impacted the natural landscape and various life forms. Animals are affected by these roads in a myriad of ways, none as devastating as road mortalities. This article reviews the literature on the magnitude, spatiotemporal patterns, factors, and consequences of Animal-Vehicle Collisions (AVCs) and the subsequent road kills. Furthermore, the review paper briefly outlines the relationship between roads and animals in the surrounding landscape and later examines the nature and impacts of AVCs. This article evaluates the statistics on the number of road kills and a critical analysis of the spatiotemporal patterns of these mortalities is also evaluated. Subsequently, the review paper examines current mitigation measures and the challenges impeding their success. The paper then concludes with an evaluation of geospatial tools (GIS) and other technologies used in road kill studies. The relevant findings of this paper are that, (1) factors influencing road kill patterns interact with one another; (2) AVCs have serious environmental, economic and social consequences; (3) road kill mitigation strategies suffer several challenges hindering their success; and (4) specific geospatial tools and other technologies have been utilised in assessing AVC road kill patterns. The review, therefore, recommends including overall road kill clusters of all animals in mortality surveys, increasing the spatial coverage of road kill observations, consistent surveying, sufficient research on nighttime driving distances and speed, utilising citizen science in all road mortality studies and incorporating GIS into all apps used for recording road kills. An increased sufficiency in road kill data coupled with improved technologies can enable more effective mitigation strategies to prevent AVCs.
道路网络的发展与扩张对自然景观和各种生物形式产生了深远影响。动物受到这些道路的影响是多方面的，其中没有比道路死亡更具毁灭性的了。本文回顾了关于动物与车辆碰撞（AVC）及其导致的道路死亡的规模、时空模式、影响因素和后果的文献。此外，这篇综述文章简要概述了道路与周边景观中动物之间的关系，随后考察了AVC的性质和影响。本文评估了道路死亡数量的统计数据，并对这些死亡的时空模式进行了批判性分析。随后，综述文章考察了当前的缓解措施以及阻碍其成功实施的挑战。文章最后对道路死亡研究中使用的地理空间工具（GIS）和其他技术进行了评估。本文的相关研究结果如下：（1）影响道路死亡模式的因素相互作用；（2）AVC具有严重的环境、经济和社会后果；（3）道路死亡缓解策略面临若干阻碍其成功的挑战；（4）特定的地理空间工具和其他技术已被用于评估AVC道路死亡模式。因此，该综述建议在死亡率调查中纳入所有动物的总体道路死亡集群，扩大道路死亡观测的空间覆盖范围，进行持续调查，对夜间驾驶距离和速度进行充分研究，在所有道路死亡研究中利用公民科学，并将GIS纳入所有用于记录道路死亡情况的应用程序。道路死亡数据的充分性提高以及技术的改进能够使预防AVC的缓解策略更加有效。
