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. 2021 Mar 18;11(3):868.
doi: 10.3390/ani11030868.

How Is Wildlife Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic? Lockdown Effect on the Road Mortality of Hedgehogs

Rafał Łopucki  1 , Ignacy Kitowski  2 , Magdalena Perlińska-Teresiak  3 , Daniel Klich  3
Affiliations

How Is Wildlife Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic? Lockdown Effect on the Road Mortality of Hedgehogs

Rafał Łopucki et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

Globally, wildlife is affected by unprecedented changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, the lockdown effect on the traffic-related mortality in hedgehogs in an urban area was studied. Comparing the pre-pandemic (2018 and 2019) and pandemic (2020) years, we showed that hedgehog roadkill levels during the lockdown period were over 50% lower (which means a decrease greater than the decrease in road traffic in the same period measured by the number of accidents or the average number of vehicles per day). Based on literature data, we showed that this may mean at least tens of thousands of hedgehogs have survived on a national scale. We report the need to start intensive research on the possible demographic and genetic effects of this unique phenomenon. We also ask how stable the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic will be on wildlife and whether the lockdown (which is an anthropause) may reverse the negative trends in the decline in the number of wild species, including hedgehogs.

Keywords: Erinaceus; anthropause; coronavirus; population; road traffic; roadkill.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of study sites in the city of Chełm, where the monitoring of hedgehog roadkill was conducted.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relative change in road traffic (March–September) and the number of road accidents (January–September) in 2020 compared to 2019 in Poland. Since March, there has been a sharp decline in road traffic (and road accidents) due to the lockdown.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Local data of the reduction in car traffic from Chełm correlated with the national data. Monthly data (January–September) from Chełm (Y-axis) showing the percentage change in the number of road accidents and collisions in 2020 compared to 2019, and nationwide data (X-axis) showing the percentage change in the number of road accidents in 2020 compared to 2019 are presented.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Number of hedgehog roadkills (in March–July) in seven study sites in the city of Chełm, (Poland, Europe) during the pre-pandemic period (2018 and 2019) and during the lockdown period (2020). Significant differences: * p ≤ 0.01 and ** p = 0.01.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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