EVALUATING ROADKILL HOTSPOTS IN NORTHERN NEW JERSEY
Date
2025-12
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Millions of mammals are killed each year by vehicles, and while there is oftentimes bias in recording larger mammalian roadkill, these species have become crucial in analyzing roadkill hotspots. With the growing human population and increased pressures of urban development, the state of New Jersey provides an excellent opportunity to understand the factors that affect roadkill events. I examine American black bear, white-tailed deer, and coyote roadkill events in combination with randomly generated roadkill points in northern New Jersey. We focused on seven different covariates, including NAACC terrestrial passage score, nearby agriculture and urban habitat, nearby core and corridor habitat, distance to the nearest core/corridor area, and distance to the nearest culvert or underpass structure. My findings suggest that the percent agricultural and percent urban habitat within a 10km2 radius of each event point were most significant in describing roadkill events. In all six models, the percent urban area was negatively correlated with roadkill events, while the percent agricultural area was also negatively correlated with roadkill events, but only significant in the first model. For bear roadkill events, the percent core and corridor showed a significant positive relationship, with more roadkill events occurring near core and corridor areas. In these same bear models, the distance to the nearest core or corridor was negatively correlated with roadkill events. The distance to the nearest culvert and NAACC terrestrial passage scores were not good indicators of roadkill events for any of the three species, most likely due to culverts rarely explaining roadkill on their own. These findings can be used to better evaluate landscape and habitat importance in roadkill events and evaluate existing underpass placements to facilitate terrestrial species movement across the state of New Jersey.