Beyond the victim number: faunistic and ecological data from a road-mortality study in the Iron Gates Natural Park, Romania

Abstract

Road mortality is one of the most obvious forms of anthropic impact upon fauna. The Iron Gates Natural Park is an area of great biodiversity, crossed by a 154 km long road running parallel to the Danube River. To estimate the impact of this road upon the fauna, between March 2019 and February 2020 we monitored road mortality on a monthly basis. We recorded 13,230 road-killed animals, belonging to 71 taxa. The greatest proportion of taxa was killed in early summer and the number of individuals killed peaked in autumn. A spring mortality peak was not observed. Cold-blooded animals were killed year-round, even though they should not have been active in winter in Romania. This is a consequence of the warmer climate of the region compared to the rest of Romania, but also the mild winter of 2019 / 2020. Mitigation measures such as stopping the construction of new roads would prevent the problem of animal road deaths being replicated in other areas. In addition to the ecological, zoogeographical and conservation value of its findings, our study also warns of a cause-effect link between global warming and an increase in road mortality.