NORTH-WESTERN JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY 8 (2): 414-425 ©NwjZ, Oradea, Romania, 2012 Article No.: 121402 http://biozoojournals.3x.ro/nwjz/index.html IENE 2010 International Conference on Ecology and Transportation "Improving Connections in a Changing Environment" September 27 - October 1, Velence, Hungary Spatial and temporal evaluation of wildlife-vehicle collisions along the M3 Highway in Hungary Ferenc MARKOLT*, László SZEMETHY, Róbert LEHOCZKI and Miklós HELTAI Institute for Wildlife Conservation, Páter Károly u. 1, 2100-Gödöllő, Hungary *Corresponding author, F. Markolt, e-mail: markoltf@vvt.gau.hu Received: 2. November 2011 / Accepted: 19. June 2012 / Available online: 2. August 2012 / Printed: December 2012 Abstract. Among linear facilities of transportation networks, highways are special because large-scale traffic and wildlife-fencing represent nearly total barrier effect for wildlife. Analysis of roadkill data provides information that helps to choose proper mitigation measures, both for traffic-safety and ecological aspects. Based on the roadkill database of the State Motorway Management Company Ltd., we evaluated data of the period between 2002 and 2009 of the Hungarian M3 highway of four selected species that are large enough to cause a threat to traffic safety (roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), wild boar (Sus scrofa), Eurasian badger (Meles meles) and red fox (Vulpes vulpes)). Our aim was to describe spatial and temporal patterns of wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) and answer the following two questions: (1) does density influence road-related mortality and (2) does the presence of the underpasses influence WVC frequency of respective road sections. Roadkill data were summarized two ways: according to borderlines of the Game Management Units around the M3 highway, and secondly in 500-m- long segments of the highway. We observed the relation and calculated correlation between the frequency of WVCs and local density of these species. To do so, we used the National Game Management Database as source of estimation data of game populations. We did not find any strong and significant correlation between roadkill frequencies and estimated population densities. As a temporal evaluation, we analyzed the frequency of WVCs of each month. In each case, apart from the Eurasian badger, we found at least one month that differed significantly (p<0.05) from others. Based on our results, we believe that frequencies of WVCs are not predominantly determined by local density of the population. The importance of underpasses could not be clarified due to their probable relation to different habitat types. Keywords: Highway, mammalian roadkill, wildlife-vehicle collisions, protective fencing, underpass. Introduction Although human activity first started to fragment nature many centuries ago, increase in density of transport infrastructure has been accelerating since the beginning of the 20th century. In preced- ing decades, transportation infrastructure has been spreading considerably. This trend is recog- nized as a trade-off of humans between ecological risks (long term) and socio-economical benefits (short term) (Findlay & Bourdages 2000), and nowadays bears serious conflicts between humans and wildlife. Ecological risks are realized through the vari- ous ways of roads’ negative impacts on nature (Spellerberg 1998, Clevenger & Waltho 2000, Trombulak & Frissell 2000, Forman et al. 2003, Iuell 2007). Net habitat loss occurs in case of a road construction but – more or less (depending on properties of the road) – the following factors also occur: barrier- and corridor-effect at the same time, road-related mortality and losses, diverse disturbance effects and pollution. New roads often stimulate the economy of adjacent areas and pro- vide accesses to areas that were hardly accessible before. These infrastructures increase the probabil- ity of future human pressure on nature, and later on, human presence create the need for additional transportation infrastructure (Iuell et al. 2003). The magic circle closes here and the process starts again, causing larger and larger disturbance, pol- lution, habitat and fauna losses, and fragmenta- tion on most different ways (Negrea & Pricop 2009, Rahman et al. 2010, Horváth et al. 2012). However, the international scientific use of the terms habitat fragmentation, habitat loss, isolation, connectivity, etc., are very diverse and confusing, and so to be clarified (Fahrig 2003), the worldwide expanding transportation network has recently been recognized as one of the most serious threats to biodiversity. Thanks to their sad spectacle the best known negative effects of transportation infrastructure on nature are probably the so-called wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC), or roadkills. In numerous stud- ies, road-related mortality was found as one of the