“Global Roadkill Data Initiative” provides access to the largest wildlife mortality database
Written by Clara Grilo
Infrastructure Ecology Research Group at BIOPOLIS | CIBIO, Portugal
April 22nd, 2025
Figure 1. Distribution and number of roadkill records globally
Summary
This open-access dataset includes over 200,000 roadkill records voluntarily shared by contributors. While it does not represent a comprehensive global assessment of roadkill incidence, it documents 2,283 species across 54 countries. The dataset is a valuable resource for researchers and stakeholders, providing critical data to support the development of wildlife-friendly transport infrastructure. This dataset marks the first step of the RISKY project, which aims to create an online platform focused on wildlife mortality caused by roads, railways, power lines, and wind farms. The platform will bring together open-access data, simple analysis tools, and interactive maps to support conservation efforts and help guide smarter, wildlife-friendly infrastructure planning.
Global roadkill data set
More than 400 researchers worldwide have compiled the largest-ever dataset on roadkill involving terrestrial vertebrates. This extensive dataset includes more than 200,000 roadkill records, representing 2,283 species from 54 countries from 6 continents: Europe (n = 19 countries), Asia (n = 16), South America (n=7), North America (n = 4), Africa (n = 6) and Oceania (n = 2). The distribution of records around the world are shown in Figure 1.
Mammals have the highest number of roadkill records (61%), followed by amphibians (21%), reptiles (10%) and birds (8%). The species with the highest number of records were roe deer with (44,268 records), pool frog (11,999 records) and European fallow deer (7,426 records).
We collected information on 126 threatened species with a total of 4,570 records. Among the threatened species, the giant anteater (classified as VULNERABLE) has the highest number of records (n = 1199), followed by the common fire salamander (VULNERABLE, n=1043), and European rabbit (ENDANGERED, n = 440) (Figure 2). Records ranged from 1971 and 2024, with 72% of the roadkill recorded since 2013. Many of these threatened species have low population densities, making them particularly susceptible to additional mortality.
Figure 2. Giant anteater ©Andy Jones; common fire salamander ©Frank Vassen; European rabbit ©caiden_b.
This dataset is open access, meaning that anyone, anywhere in the world can freely access and use it. It is available through Scientific Data, GBIF (for systematic records and for opportunistic records) and Figshare.
This dataset, and the data it contains, facilitates a major step forward in wildlife conservation and sustainable transport infrastructure development. By providing detailed records of roadkill locations from surveys conducted worldwide, it aims to support scientific research, guide policymaking, and mitigate the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of wildlife-vehicle collisions.
This achievement is part of the RISKY project (Wildlife Mortality from Energy and Transport Infrastructure) coordinated by myself, with the collaboration from many others, and funded by OSCARS (Open Science Clusters' Action for Research and Society) under the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Program.
Next Steps: Expanding Beyond Roads
This dataset marks the first phase of the RISKY project, which aims to develop a comprehensive web-based platform on wildlife mortality from transport and energy infrastructure. The platform will also integrate open-access mortality data from railways, power lines, and wind farms, as well as user-friendly analytical tools to support conservation research and the publication of sensitivity maps to guide decision-makers in infrastructure planning and mitigation strategies. Following the recent publication of the Global Roadkill data paper, we are actively supporting anyone interested in publishing their wildlife mortality datasets on GBIF. The RISKY project seeks to contribute knowledge for the development and expansion of energy and transport infrastructures that respect and protect wildlife.
If you’re interested in collaborating on the RISKY project, there are three key ways to get involved:
1. Sharing mortality data – If you have data on collisions or electrocution of wildlife from power lines, wind farms, or railway infrastructure, we can include it in the database. As with this first publication, we will publish summary data papers and offer authorship for those who contribute their mortality data.
2. Connecting us with key stakeholders – If you have contacts at transport agencies, public administration offices, energy operators, or other relevant stakeholders, we would love to engage them in this initiative.
3. Helping us spread the word – Sharing our project within your networks will help us reach more researchers, students, consultants, government agencies, and organizations working on energy and transport infrastructure globally. A quick and effective way to do this is by forwarding this research summary to them.
If you’re interested in collaborating or learning more, feel free to contact me at clara.grilo@cibio.up.pt. I’ll be happy to follow up with more details.
Author information
Clara Grilo earned her PhD in Conservation Biology from the University of Lisbon in 2009. Her research has primarily focused on the impacts of road networks on birds and mammals, exploring aspects such as behaviour, relative abundance, mortality, genetic structure, and extinction risk. She currently leads the Infrastructure Ecology Research Group at BIOPOLIS | CIBIO (Portugal).
Co-authors: Tomé Neves, Jennifer Bates, Aliza le Roux, Pablo Medrano-Vizcaíno, Mattia Quaranta, Inês Silva, Kylie Soanes, Yun Wang & Data Collection Consortium
Source citation
Grilo C., Neves et al. (2025). Global Roadkill Data: a dataset on terrestrial vertebrate mortality caused by collision with vehicles. Scientific Data, http://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-04207-x
Editor:
Rodney van der Ree
Cite this summary:
Grilo, C. (2025). “Global Roadkill Data Initiative” provides access to the largest wildlife mortality database. Edited by van der Ree, R. TransportEcology.info, Accessed at: https://transportecology.info/research/global-roadkill-data-initiative