Dogs are the main species involved in animal-vehicle collisions in southern Spain: daily, seasonal and spatial analyses of collisions.

Animal-vehicle collisions have become a serious traffic safety issue. Collisions have steadily increased over the last few decades, as have their associated socio-economic costs. Here, we explore the spatial and temporal patterns of animal-vehicle collisions reported to authorities in the province of Seville, southern Spain. Most animal-vehicle collisions involved domestic animals (>95%), particularly dogs (>80%), a pattern that sharply contrasts with that found in other Spanish and European regions, where collisions are mostly caused by game species. Dog-vehicle collisions were related to the traffic intensity of the roads and they were more frequent around dawn and dusk, coinciding with the peaks of activity of dogs. This pattern was consistent throughout the week, although on weekends there were fewer collisions due to lower traffic density at those times. These findings suggest that the aggregation of dog-vehicle collisions around twilight likely resulted from a combined effect of the activity peaks of dogs and traffic density. Seasonally, collisions increased in autumn and winter, coinciding with the period of intense hunting activity in the region. Further, during autumn and winter, rush hour partly overlaps with twilight due to longer nights in comparison with summer and spring, which may contribute to the increased rate of dog-vehicle collisions in these seasons. Spatially, satellite images of nighttime lights showed that dog-vehicle collisions were clustered near urban areas. Overall, the high incidence of stray dogs involved in animal-vehicle collisions highlights a road safety issue with this type of animals in the region.

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Canal D. Martín B. de Lucas M. y Ferrer M. Dogs are the main species involved in animal-vehicle collisions in southern Spain: daily seasonal and spatial analyses of collisions. Public Library of Science, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203693

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Retrieved: 19 Jan 2025 23:58:28
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Resource type Text
Date of creation 2024-12-02
Date of last revision 2025-01-19
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Metadata identifier eb09b213-34c8-51d0-b925-922bf4133701
Metadata language Spanish
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ISO 19115 topic category biota
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Name of the dataset creator Canal, D., Martín, B., de Lucas, M. y Ferrer, M.
Name of the dataset editor Public Library of Science
Other identifier DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203693
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