engleski

Ultrasound emitting devices and acoustic deer-warning reflectors as useful deterrents for reducing number of roe deer-vehicle collisions in Slovenia

Worldwide, collisions of vehicles with big game (particularly deer-vehicle collisions) provoke a high risk for road safety and represent an important economical loss ; moreover, they significantly contribute to mortality of wildlife populations. In Slovenia, between 5, 400 and 6, 400 of wild-living ungulates (including 5, 200 – 6, 200 roe deer) are killed on roads each year, which contributes to dramatic economical loss, exceeding 10 millions of EUR on a national scale. Therefore and following our former experiences with different chemical, acoustic and light-provoking deterrents, effectiveness of three mitigation measures (ultrasound emitting devices ; deer warning reflectors with additional sound deterrents – acoustic reflectors ; combination of classic and acoustic reflectors) was assessed on 23 very problematic Slovene road sections in 2006. In total, the number of road-killed ungulates (primarily roe deer, representing >95 % of all reports) on protected road sections decreased in the 2006 study period (10 July – 31 December) for 106 individuals (for 83 %) in comparison either with a comparable period in the year before the trial or with the average value for the comparable periods in years 2002– 2005. Regardless a type of deterrents used the number of road-killed roe deer significantly differed among last five years and was significantly lower in the 2006 study period in comparison with every single year in the period 2002– 2005, which undoubtedly confirms the high effectiveness of mitigation measures used. Particularly since the number of road-killed ungulates on several control road-sections did not differ among years and was only slightly lower in the 2006 study period in comparison either with the comparable period in the year 2005 (16 % reduction) or with the average value for comparable periods in years 2002– 2005 (3 % reduction). Moreover, the number of road-killed animals decreased also at neighbouring road sections in the 2006 trial, which indicates that implemented deterrents did not cause movement of black-spots on other locations along the road transects. Differences in effectiveness among all three mitigation devices were low and insignificant (comparison with the average value in 2002– 2005 periods: reduction for 79 %, 87 % and 78 % for ultrasound emitting devices, acoustic reflectors and combination of reflectors, respectively). Therefore and considering also costs for implementation of all three countermeasures (devices), which are extremely lower in the case of combination of classic and acoustic reflectors (for 75 % in comparison with ultrasound emitting devices and for 45 % in comparison with acoustic reflectors), this combination is highly recommended as both very effective and economically acceptable countermeasure for reducing the risk for collisions with roe deer and other wild-living ungulates in Slovenia and probably also in other European countries.

deer-vehicle collisions; roe deer; wild-living ungulates; ultrasound emitting

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