Abstract Title
Using Crowdsourced Observations to Document Road Mortality in Idaho's Amphibians and Reptiles
Additional Funding Sources
The project described was supported by National Science Foundation under Award No. IIA-1301792 through the NSF Idaho EPSCoR Program and by the Idaho State University Career Path Internship Program.
Abstract
The objective of this study was to use crowdsourced observations to document taxonomic, temporal, and spatial variation in road-killed amphibians and reptiles in Idaho. We searched over 8,000 records from museum specimens, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Roadkill & Salvage Highway Mortality Reports, and observations from the Idaho Amphibian and Reptile iNaturalist Project. We compared the observations from these three sources to a dedicated road mortality research project by Jochimsen et al. (2014). Using text data (e.g., roadkill or DOR) and photographs (from iNaturalist), we identified a total of 570 records, the majority of which were crowdsourced. We summarized these records by taxonomic group (class, order, and species), time (year, month, and day), geographic location, and ecoregion to evaluate which groups and species are most affected by road mortality and when and where it has occurred. This information should be useful for efforts to reduce an important cause of mortality for these animals.
Using Crowdsourced Observations to Document Road Mortality in Idaho's Amphibians and Reptiles
The objective of this study was to use crowdsourced observations to document taxonomic, temporal, and spatial variation in road-killed amphibians and reptiles in Idaho. We searched over 8,000 records from museum specimens, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Roadkill & Salvage Highway Mortality Reports, and observations from the Idaho Amphibian and Reptile iNaturalist Project. We compared the observations from these three sources to a dedicated road mortality research project by Jochimsen et al. (2014). Using text data (e.g., roadkill or DOR) and photographs (from iNaturalist), we identified a total of 570 records, the majority of which were crowdsourced. We summarized these records by taxonomic group (class, order, and species), time (year, month, and day), geographic location, and ecoregion to evaluate which groups and species are most affected by road mortality and when and where it has occurred. This information should be useful for efforts to reduce an important cause of mortality for these animals.
Comments
W7