A decrease in reports on road-killed animals based on citizen science during COVID-19 lockdown

Background To avoid the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 in early 2020, many countries have implemented strict lockdown measures for several weeks. In Austria, the lockdown in early spring has led to a significant drop in human outdoor activities, especially in road traffic. In Project Roadkill, a ci...

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Autores principales:	Daniel Dörler, Florian Heigl
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	PeerJ Inc. 2021
Materias:	Road ecology Citizen science Roadkill COVID-19 Lockdown Travel behavior Medicine R
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e2f8655cd66c4f379a1a64a2693fc26f
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:e2f8655cd66c4f379a1a64a2693fc26f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e2f8655cd66c4f379a1a64a2693fc26f2021-11-25T15:05:18ZA decrease in reports on road-killed animals based on citizen science during COVID-19 lockdown10.7717/peerj.124642167-8359https://doaj.org/article/e2f8655cd66c4f379a1a64a2693fc26f2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://peerj.com/articles/12464.pdfhttps://peerj.com/articles/12464/https://doaj.org/toc/2167-8359Background To avoid the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 in early 2020, many countries have implemented strict lockdown measures for several weeks. In Austria, the lockdown in early spring has led to a significant drop in human outdoor activities, especially in road traffic. In Project Roadkill, a citizen science project which aims to collect data on road-killed animals, we observed a significant decrease in reported roadkills. Methods By asking the citizen scientists through a survey how their travelling routines were affected, we investigated if the observed decrease in roadkills was grounded in less animals being killed by traffic, or in citizen scientists staying at home and thus reporting less road-killed animals. Results A majority of the respondents stated that they felt to have reported less roadkills during the lockdown, regardless if they changed their travelling routine or not. This observation in combination with the overall decrease in road traffic indicates that fewer animals were killed during the lockdown. We conclude that when analyzing citizen science data, the effects of lockdown measures on reporting behaviour should be considered, because they can significantly affect data and interpretation of these data.Daniel DörlerFlorian HeiglPeerJ Inc.articleRoad ecologyCitizen scienceRoadkillCOVID-19LockdownTravel behaviorMedicineRENPeerJ, Vol 9, p e12464 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Road ecology Citizen science Roadkill COVID-19 Lockdown Travel behavior Medicine R
spellingShingle	Road ecology Citizen science Roadkill COVID-19 Lockdown Travel behavior Medicine R Daniel Dörler Florian Heigl A decrease in reports on road-killed animals based on citizen science during COVID-19 lockdown
description	Background To avoid the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 in early 2020, many countries have implemented strict lockdown measures for several weeks. In Austria, the lockdown in early spring has led to a significant drop in human outdoor activities, especially in road traffic. In Project Roadkill, a citizen science project which aims to collect data on road-killed animals, we observed a significant decrease in reported roadkills. Methods By asking the citizen scientists through a survey how their travelling routines were affected, we investigated if the observed decrease in roadkills was grounded in less animals being killed by traffic, or in citizen scientists staying at home and thus reporting less road-killed animals. Results A majority of the respondents stated that they felt to have reported less roadkills during the lockdown, regardless if they changed their travelling routine or not. This observation in combination with the overall decrease in road traffic indicates that fewer animals were killed during the lockdown. We conclude that when analyzing citizen science data, the effects of lockdown measures on reporting behaviour should be considered, because they can significantly affect data and interpretation of these data.
format	article
author	Daniel Dörler Florian Heigl
author_facet	Daniel Dörler Florian Heigl
author_sort	Daniel Dörler
title	A decrease in reports on road-killed animals based on citizen science during COVID-19 lockdown
title_short	A decrease in reports on road-killed animals based on citizen science during COVID-19 lockdown
title_full	A decrease in reports on road-killed animals based on citizen science during COVID-19 lockdown
title_fullStr	A decrease in reports on road-killed animals based on citizen science during COVID-19 lockdown
title_full_unstemmed	A decrease in reports on road-killed animals based on citizen science during COVID-19 lockdown
title_sort	decrease in reports on road-killed animals based on citizen science during covid-19 lockdown
publisher	PeerJ Inc.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/e2f8655cd66c4f379a1a64a2693fc26f
work_keys_str_mv	AT danieldorler adecreaseinreportsonroadkilledanimalsbasedoncitizenscienceduringcovid19lockdown AT florianheigl adecreaseinreportsonroadkilledanimalsbasedoncitizenscienceduringcovid19lockdown AT danieldorler decreaseinreportsonroadkilledanimalsbasedoncitizenscienceduringcovid19lockdown AT florianheigl decreaseinreportsonroadkilledanimalsbasedoncitizenscienceduringcovid19lockdown
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A decrease in reports on road-killed animals based on citizen science during COVID-19 lockdown

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