Title photo from: https://animals.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/1635069/
Summary
Collisions involving wildlife along roads and railways are a significant problem that cause fatalities to both humans and wildlife as well as significant property damage that entails economic losses. The purpose of this study is to identify wildlife deterrents that are effective in warning wildlife of approaching vehicles, ultimately decreasing collision probability. Visual and auditory deterrents were assessed as well as a combination of the two.
Data was collected near Banff National park, along both the Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) and the Canadian-Pacific Railway (CPR). Three sites were selected along each transect, approximately three kilometers apart; Google Earth was used to conceptualize study sites. Wildlife activity was measured using motion-sensing wildlife cameras and analyzed using both a t-test and effect-size statistics (completed with R software).
The combination of both deterrents was observed to be the most efficient with a 67% decrease in observed wildlife. Auditory and visual deterrents alone were both moderately effective, with visual deterrents yielding a marginally improved result (37% vs 29 %). In conclusion, we believe that the combination of both auditory and visual deterrents has the potential to be both more effective and economically feasible to traditional collision mitigation methods.