In this citizen science project of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, we would like to create an overview of where animals are roadkilled and what reasons there might be for this.

In the project Roadkill, we would like to collaborate with you in many ways, because citizen science means for us an active collaboration between research and society, in which everyone can contribute expertise and is valued. The collaboration is on a voluntary basis and can therefore be freely designed.

You can find out in which ways you can collaborate with the project Roadkill in the section "Explore".

What does roadkill mean?

Roadkill is the term used to describe all animals killed in road traffic. The German term Wildunfall (wildlife accident) falls short as it usually only refers to larger mammals and occasionally birds. This is also reflected in official statistics - data on animals killed in road traffic are mainly collected on so-called "huntable game". Data on all other animal species - including endangered species such as amphibians - are missing.

What is the relevance of roadkill?

Roads fragment the habitats of many animal species. Applied to human living spaces, this would mean that, for example, the connection between kitchen and living room is crossed by a road. Animals cross roads when, for example, they are searching for food, looking for mating partners or when they are moving between winter and summer habitats (such as toads during their migration in spring). Animal species that make these migrations are therefore particularly frequently affected by roadkill.

Roadkill also has relevance for humans - animals on the roads pose a great danger to motorists and also a great ethical burden. Not only collisions with large animals such as deer or wild boar cause casualties and damage to property every year - small animals such as hedgehogs and toads can also cause damage, as accidents due to evasive and braking manoeuvres frequently occur.

Our project and the global goals of the United Nations

The United Nations adopted the Agenda2030 for Sustainable Development in October 2015, listing 17 goals and 169 targets. With this agenda, nothing less than the world is to be transformed and this in an economic, social and environmental dimension.

These Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are designed to stimulate action in areas of vital importance to humanity and the planet as a whole, from ending hunger and poverty to tackling climate change the promotion of peaceful, equitable and inclusive societies, to ensure economic, technical and social progress in harmony with nature.

We think that citizen science and the project Roadkill are particularly suitable for contributing to the achievement of specific goals.

Contribution of the project Roadkill to the SDGs

We can imagine being able to contribute to the following goals with the Roadkill project:

SDG 15.5: Among others, halt the loss of biodiversity

This is an extremely complex target where we see especially our scientific work as essential by using the collected data and additional projects to analyse the influence of roads and road traffic on vertebrate animal populations, focusing on endangered species. Only with this knowledge can we set concrete and meaningful measures to reduce a possible negative impact of roads and road traffic.

By collecting data on roadkilled vertebrate species in general and species listed in the IUCN Red List (https://www.iucnredlist.org/) in particular, and by forwarding such data to public authorities project Roadkill can contribute to the indicator of SDG 15.5 “Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020 protect and prevent the extinction of protected species” and to SDG 15.9 “By 2020, integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning development processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts” by providing data.

Of course, we are aware that through our project we can only make a small contribution to achieving global SDGs, but we would like to try our best to make our planet a bit more sustainable. In our view the cooperation of the public with representatives of science at eye level makes it possible to be able to reach the extremely complex global goals of the United Nations step by step from a local to a global level.