Factors Affecting Roadkills of Semi-Aquatic Mammals

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Semiaquatic mammal roadkill, specifically the European beaver, Eurasian otter, American mink and muskrat was analyzed in Lithuania in the period 2002–2021. From almost 40,000 recorded roadkill cases for all species, these species were registered 60, 22, 26 and 3 times, respectively, thus being rare events. Registered beaver roadkill numbers correlated with an increased registration effort and traffic intensity, while otter roadkill correlated with a registration effort only, and mink roadkill correlated with an increased population (estimated through its proxy and the number of hunted individuals per year). The roadkill was not always in close proximity to waterbodies, with 38–54% of roadkill of these species occurring over 200 m from the nearest water source. With the American mink and muskrat being invasive species in the EU and the Eurasian otter protected in many countries, it could be considered valuable to enhance the registrations of their roadkill (using targeted efforts by drivers, hunters or other citizen scientists) in order to obtain the extrapolated amount of roadkill and to use this knowledge in species management. ABSTRACT: We previously showed that registration efforts and traffic intensity explain 90% of variation in mammal roadkill numbers, 70% of variation in the numbers of recorded species and 40% of diversity variation. Here we analyze semiaquatic mammal roadkill in Lithuania in 2002–2021, relating these to the monitoring effort. From 39,936 analyzed roadkill, the European beaver (Castor fiber) was registered 60 times, American mink (Neovison vison) 26 times, otter (Lutra lutra) 22 times and muskrat (Ondatra zibethica) 3 times. The average roadkill indexes were 0.000065, 0.00076, 0.00061 and 0.00010 ind./km/day, and the extrapolated annual roadkill for the country was 44–357, 36–456, 49–464 and 89–144 individuals, respectively. Beaver roadkill numbers correlated with the registration effort and traffic intensity, otter roadkill with registration effort only and mink with hunting bag (number of hunted individuals per year). Roadkill was not always related to proximity to water, with 38–54% of roadkill occurring over 200 m from the nearest water source. With American mink and muskrat being invasive species in the EU and otter protected in many countries, it is valuable to enhance the registrations of their roadkill (using targeted efforts by drivers, hunters or other citizen scientists) to obtain the extrapolated amount of roadkill and to use this knowledge in species management.