Why Track Roadkill?
Roadkill may be a routine occurrence, but it is not without consequences. Aside from delivering a pang of sadness or disgust to passing drivers, wildlife-vehicle collisions result in approximately 365 million dead vertebrates per year in the United States alone [1], and pose significant threats to endangered species. For example, roadkill accounts for 35% of annual deaths in the endangered Florida panthers [2], and has resulted in the documented extinction of a local population of quolls in Tasmania, with a new population establishing itself following measures to reduce roadkill [3]. That is, roadkill poses an existential threat to many of our most vulnerable species.
Moreover, tracking roadkill provides valuable insights for a number of applications. Roadkill data, though biased toward ambulatory species, can elucidate species distributions, population trends, behavioral patterns, and even public health as a low-cost sampling method for environmental contaminants and vector-borne diseases [4]. There is real utility in tracking roadkill.
Boston is home to both charismatic and nuisance wildlife, including coyotes, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, and—who could forget—rats. Whereas rural areas have largely been the subject of previous studies, urban and suburban settings like Boston have not received as much attention. Yet, urban wildlife interact with more humans more frequently and more intimately, whether we realize it or not. This project aims to understand the distribution of roadkill in Boston and its suburbs better, with immediate applications in roadkill reduction and long-term applications in urban ecology.
As a roadkill reduction measure, our team has designed a prototype speed bump with an embedded tunnel, meant to both decrease traffic speed and to provide safe passage for small animals seeking to cross the road. We aim to identify roadkill hotspots for non-nuisance species in Boston to trial our speed bumps in.
Speed bump with embedded elevated tunnel.
Roadkill Around Boston
Access the raw data here: Data
How You Can Contribute
You can contribute to a better understanding of roadkill in Boston's urban setting by taking a clear photo with your smartphone and submitting it below, along with the species identification.
We also need experts to verify species identifications. Please contact our team to discuss further.