Abstract
Roadkills are results of AVC (Animal- Vehicle Collisions), or WVC (Wildlife- Vehicle Collisions) and represent a serious environmental, socioeconomic, health and traffic issue all over the World. AVC are killing thousand and injuring tens of thousands of people annually throughout the world. The phenomenon represents one of the most emerging human wildlife conflicts and most important factor contributing to human- nature coexistence.
The AVC registration in South Tyrol started 2012. The dataset (2012-2017) contains 5004 (average 822,67 ± 73,25) collisions (Südtiroler Jagdverband, 2018) on 5016 km of road network. Their spatiotemporal distribution is not randomly, they tend to accumulate in certain areas (hotspots) as a result of spatial and temporal factors. Spatial differences in AVC-hotspots are depending on species' habitat characteristics, type of road, and traffic volume, while temporal differences are depending on factors like climate conditions, habitat structure, seasonality and lunar cycles. Understanding the impact of nominated factors on local scale, lead researchers in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano to face big challenges. Including this knowledge in future wildlife management plans, could lead the local territory in a direction where transportation means, and wildlife can coexist.