Biodiversity in project Roadkill

Our overall vision in the Roadkill project is to reduce the number of animals that are road-killed. To this end, we would first like to provide an overview of which animal species are affected by roadkill at all. A first look into our database shows us an incredible variety of animals, which were reported by our participants.

Among the mammals we find over 1000 hedgehogs, 298 squirrels, 65 raccoons or 42 squirrels. Also very exotic species like maned wolves in Paraguay, an elk in Canada, possums in the USA, a macaque in Malaysia or kangaroos in Australia have already been reported to us.

For amphibians, where all species are protected in Austria, 333 green toads, 159 crested newts or 7 alpine salamanders have already been registered in our database. In the graph you can also see that 633 animals were registered as "Other amphibians", this shows that amphibians are particularly difficult to identify when they are road-killed. So also some not more exactly determinable frogs with photo from Thailand were reported to us. Maybe there is an expert among the readers who can identify them.

Among the reptiles, 13 Aesculapian snakes or 9 Smooth snakes have been reported to us so far. Since 34 lizards and 20 snakes could not be determined more closely, one sees also here the challenge to be able to identify road-killed vertebrates exactly. Also among the reptiles, unfortunately very exciting animals have been reported to us, such as a adder from Greece, or snakes from India or the USA, which were not specified in detail. Also here we would be pleased about a help with the identification. Have a look at our world map and click your way through the spots, it is really exciting! If you notice something special, you are welcomed to to comment, like or share the spot.

Since birds are extremely difficult to determine when they have been road-killd, we have already consciously decided here before only for a rough classification. However, since more than 1000 animals have already been registered here, we would like to introduce a more precise determination here. If you would like to help us here, please write to us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

These figures clearly show how important our project is. Preserving biodiversity is not only an academic challenge, but has also been recognised by the UN as an extremely important global goal and has been included in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In any case, we would like to continue the project and work with you to make the roads safer for people and animals. Many thanks to all who report their findings to us every day!