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KMID : 1094020140310040282
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Journal of Veterinary Clinics
2014 Volume.31 No. 4 p.282 ~ p.287
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Spatial and Temporal Patterns on Wildlife Road-kills on Highway in Korea
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Lee Gyoung-ju
Tak Jong-Hoon
Pak Son-Il
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Abstract
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The negative impacts of roads on wildlife mortality have been well documented, and one of the mostsignificant impact is wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) in most countries throughout the world. While road impactson wildlife are a truly global concern with a large socio-economic cost, few researches in Korea have been quantifiedroad-kill occurrence on highways or identified extensively seasonal and geographic patterns of this phenomenon. Therefore, we analyzed highway mortality of wild mammals in Korea using database from five years of nation-widedata on WVCs, and estimated road-kill density by standardizing on per km and per 103 vehicle basis. During 2008through 2012, a total of 10,940 wildlifes were reported killed on highways, with an average of 2,188 cases per year. There were 2,376 road-kills in 2012, and this equates to 0.01 road-kills per km per week or one road-kill every 88.5km per week. For time of day, road-kills occurred more frequently in the early morning (05:00-08:00, 38.3%), andday of week did not have a significant influence in any individual year. The road-kill was highest in the spring (March-May, 33.0%) and least in the winter (December-February, 16.1%), and the most frequently killed native species wereof Korean water deer (79.7%), raccoon dog (12.7%), Korean hare (3.1%), and leopard cat (1.2%). The overallstandardized kill-rate (number/10 km/1,000 vehicles/month) in 2012 was 0.057 with highest on Dangjinyeongdeokhighway (0.476), followed by Yeongdong (0.274), Sooncheonwanju (0.233), Iksanpohang (0.187), and Joongang (0.150). This study highlights that the frequency of WVCs are prevalent throughout the highways in Korea. Further work isneeded to determine whether such a level of mortality is sustainable from an ecological point of view.
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KEYWORD
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road-kill, mortality, highway, wild mammals.
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Listed journal information
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