Successes
Here you can find our cooperations and publications.
GeRoKi: Genetic evidence and roadkill hotspot analysis of vertebrate species killed on selected roads in Lower Austria Duration: 2 May 2023 – 1 May 2024Funding body: Province of Lower Austria Our landscape is criss-crossed by roads, which often pose a danger to wild animals and result in the loss of their habitat. However, reliable data on the number of animals that regularly fall victim to road traffic is lacking in Austria, especially for species that are not hunted. Since 2014, the Roadkill Project has been collecting roadkill data with the help of dedicated citizen scientists. However, two major challenges have emerged in the process. Reports are usually made randomly rather than systematically. It is often difficult to identify animal species from photographs. This is precisely where the GeRoKi research project came in. The aim was to find out whether the data collected was sufficient to identify so-called roadkill hotspots – i.e. sections of road where a particularly large number of animals are killed – and whether the animal species could be clearly identified using DNA from blood residues on the asphalt. Between July and October 2023, five road sections in Lower Austria were cycled three times a week. The researchers found…
Animal roadkills in Austria between 2014-2021: associations between hotspots, land cover and road types based on citizen science. (submitted as a manuscript to a scientific journal) Road traffic poses a major threat to biodiversity, but the exact causes of roadkill – animals killed by vehicles – are still poorly understood, especially on a supraregional level. This study examines how different landscape types and road types influence the number of animals killed by vehicles in Austria. The focus is on seven frequently reported species: common toad, green toad, grass snake, brown hare, hedgehog, squirrel and blackbird. The data comes from the citizen science project 'Roadkill', in which volunteers reported a total of 3,370 dead animals between 2014 and 2021. The surrounding area of each location within a radius of 250 metres was examined based on land use data (CORINE) and road data from OpenStreetMap. The analysis shows that the probability of roadkill depends heavily on the animal species, the environment and the type of road. Agricultural land in the surrounding area increases the risk for five of the seven species. Urban areas, on the other hand, usually reduce the risk. Many dead animals were found on tertiary roads and pavements in…
Roadkill reports will be analysed once a year, focusing on detailed information on the surrounding landscapes of the five most frequently reported species and the type of road on which the animals were reported. The surrounding landscape and the type of road (e.g. motorway, interurban) on which roadkills were reported contribute to the understanding of the influence of the landscape and various road features on biodiversity. In addition, all citizen scientists in the project can vote once a year on which research topics from the past basic analyses they find most attractive. The research topic with the most votes will serve as the basis for a new technical article. To do this, the underlying questions and observations in the research topic are first refined into a research question by the research team together with the submitters. This research question will then be worked on and developed into a scientific article. We invite you to participate in the entire process according to your possibilities and time resources. Annual analyses published so far: Annual analysis from 09/2024 - 08/2025 (in German): https://zenodo.org/records/17182064 Annual analysis from 09/2023 - 08/2024 (in German): https://zenodo.org/records/13752128 Annual analysis from 09/2022 - 08/2023 (in German): https://zenodo.org/records/10254981 Annual analysis from 09/2021 -…
The data on roadkills is the heart of the project and was collected through the voluntary work of the participating citizen scientists. Therefore, it is a concern for us in the project team to give back to society as much as possible from the project. Moreover, as part of the listing on the platform Österreich forscht, we have committed ourselves to fulfilling the quality criteria for citizen science projects that apply there, which include, among other things, that results and data from a citizen science project must be made freely available. As soon as a roadkill is reported, it is visible on our interactive map. You can filter by species on this map, create a so-called heatmap where you can see clustering points of reported animals and also create time series. This way you can get a first overview of which animals are reported where and when in the project. Each participant can download and use his/her own reports at any time. Every second day, the data entered into the Roadkill project is validated by members of the project team to correct incorrect or inconsistent entries via the backend of the website or, if the record cannot be corrected, the…
